


Magic, Love, and Other Things That Don't Exist

by PsychoKitty33



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Cheating, Crying, Cute, F/M, Fluff, How Do I Tag, Humanstuck, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, ice cream is a girl's best friend
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-21
Updated: 2015-06-11
Packaged: 2018-01-09 12:08:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 37,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1145813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PsychoKitty33/pseuds/PsychoKitty33
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aradia Megido is an archaeology major in college. She is relatively introverted, mostly spending time with her boyfriend Sollux, but soon new people start coming into her life, the foremost being one Eridan Ampora. Things certainly are about to get interesting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Boring lectures, Pizza, Adventure Movies, and Boyfriend Cuddles

Aradia walked briskly through the park, on her way to class. She was nearly 21 and majoring in archaeology with a minor degree in history. She hoped to someday be an archaeologist and unearth ancient civilizations. When she was a child, back in the orphanage, she had first seen a great man who would become her hero, his eyes barely visible from below the brim of that brown felt fedora. She was immediately infatuated with the man on the screen, whose face was rough with stubble, as he rushed through ruins, running for his life from an enormous rolling stone ball. And yet he survived, even though it seemed he had surely reached his end. As Aradia would soon find out, that man was Indiana Jones, and in virtually no time he would become the young girl’s idol. Ever since then she aspired to explore ruins, just like her hero. And now, with any luck she would be able to. It was through a lot of hard work that she had gotten this far, hours and hours of studying in high school; extra credit projects; reading she didn’t actually have to do; fundraising for educational trips. But look where it had got her, a full ride to Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Of course this didn’t include meals or books so she still had to work long hours in the library. It would have helped to have parents to pay, but what could she do? She was never adopted, but was bounced around a few foster homes.  


The problem was the Aradia had a bit of an obsession with death. Anyone without parents would want to know why, and when the answer is death, any child would do a bit of reading on that. So many ways to die, Aradia had been enchanted in this world of death. She was fascinated with dead things and would often do home dissections of anything she found dead at the side of the road. Which isn’t exactly what you want from a daughter, so she was usually sent back to the orphanage before long. And then when she saw Raiders of the Lost Ark she was even more interested. An entire city? Without any people whatsoever? In a way the city itself was dead, at least it was bare of life. So back in that cold orphanage she decided she would do whatever it takes to get herself into a dead city just like that. And now she was so close, so if all she had to do was work some odd hours at the on campus library then she would.  


Aradia worked her way across the park (the dorms had been full and since the school was paying for her they let people who would actually pay their own way have the dorms first). The park was the quickest route for a girl without a car to go from her apartment to main campus. Now something caught her eye, a bright purple flier, tacked to a tree. Since she was early, Aradia stopped to look at it. It advertised a free magic show, here in the park tomorrow afternoon. She scoffed. Everyone knew magic was fake and something for kids, but she wasn’t doing anything at three anyway. Actually, it would be convenient, right after her shift at the library, and it was Saturday, so no classes for her. Aradia decided she would go, and continued on her way to class.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Class had been boring, a total drag. It was all stuff she already knew about Ancient Egypt. She had passed the time by texting her boyfriend, Sollux, a computer major. Sollux was a total nerd, tall and wiry, but a cutie. She loved spending her free nights off with him, in his dorm room, eating cheap Top-Ramen and playing video games with him or cuddling and watching adventure flicks (though nothing tops the four Indiana Jones movies). Through the entire lecture she struggled to keep a straight face as Sollux sent her cheesy pick up lines. Eventually class was over and she walked home. Aradia shot Sollux a text asking if he wanted to come over tonight for an Indiana Jones movie marathon (what else is new) since she didn’t have anything besides work from 12-3 tomorrow afternoon. He agreed.  
Aradia went home and quickly tidied her small apartment. She called for a pizza, half plain for her, half sausage and pepperoni for Sol and relayed her address to the worker who spoke in a gruff voice, like he was angry (she swore she heard him yell “we have a phone call, fuckass” at someone in the shop). She found the vhs tapes and put the first one into her video player. It was old fashioned, but it was what she could afford. All the best movies were on tapes anyway, and if they weren’t she could always make an exception to her ‘school supplied laptop is only for school’ rule. There was a rap at the door, and she opened it to a boy about her age, who had extremely green eyes and was wearing extremely short shorts. She took the pizza from him and set it on the table.  
“Give me a sec, gotta grab my wallet.”, She said as she walked back into her bedroom. The pizza man just nodded and uneasily took a step into the apartment. When she came back out she handed him the money. He went to leave and then turned back, clearing his throat uncomfortably.  
“Is that Raiders of the Lost Ark?” He queried. He actually had some sort of accent, maybe British, which was quite strange for someone in Rhode Island.  
“Why yes.” Aradia blinked, surprised, she had it paused at the beginning on a nondescript landscape. It was amazing he has recognized it. “We’re having a marathon, all four of them tonight.” She smiled at him, clearly she found someone with good movie tastes.  
“Devilfucking Dickens!” Aradia had to giggle at that, then listened back in as he continued, “It’s a shame i’ll have to miss out on that! Oh, not that I would have intruded. I mean I don’t know you, sorry that was odd of me.”  
“It’s fine. I’m Aradia Megido.”  
“Jake English.”  
“I’m at the University for archeology”  
“Capital! I’m actually there too, I’m for biology though. You see, back on the island where I was raised there was a considerable amount of flaura and fauna. Not much besides that though. And the ruins of course.”  
“Ruins?” Aradia asked, curiosity piqued.  
“Yes, huge ruins, underground, I don’t think anyone has ever gone through them in their entirety. In my youth I quite fancied myself an adventurer like our hat-wearing-hero.”  
“As an archaeology major, i’m interested. Is it possible that I could have a look at them sometime?”  
“I’m sure that could be arranged.”  
“I’ll see you around then! You probably ought to get back to work.”  
“Egads! You’re right. Later then.”  


He hurried off and Aradia shut the door after him, laughing. She had never met such an odd fellow. Egads? Capital? She snickered. Devilfucking Dickins? He was certainly individual (especially with those shorts (Egads!)). But wow. To grow up exploring ruins of some old city. Aradia wondered if he ever found any mummies, or if mummification wasn’t the method used after death there. She would definitely go about contacting him, if not through the school, she at least knew his workplace.  
There were two sharp raps at the door. That had to be Sol. She let him in. To her surprise he was holding two pint-containers of Ben and Jerry’s chocolate fudge brownie ice cream. “Here, i’ll stick these in the freezer. I got pizza.” Aradia said taking the containers from him. She did as she said she would, noting how empty her freezer was. She needed to restock her college survival foods: frozen pizzas and macaroni and cheese TV dinners. Aradia wasn’t a vegetarian per se, but she didn’t eat a lot of meat. It wasn’t really something she even thought about, she just didn’t have it often. She returned to the living room to see Sollux already eating, leaning over the box. Aradia hit play on the VCR player and went and sat next to him, snuggling into his side; pulling up her feet on the couch; and grabbing a slice of cheese. Sol was already on his second next to her. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Throughout the duration of the four movies they finished the pizza pie and about a half dozen A-Treat black cherry sodas (Aradia adored them, even if they were somewhat harder to find in stores). They also ate one of the pints of ice cream, after Aradia had insisted they share and Sollux pointed out she just wanted the other one to herself (Which she couldn’t really deny, chocolate fudge brownie? Who wouldn’t want the second one for later). Sollux was already asleep, stretched out on the sofa. Aradia reluctantly pulled out of his grasp. She turned off the TV; returned her tapes to the shelf; brushed her teeth; and grabbed the comforter off her bed. She threw it over him and then re-inserted herself into his arms, feeling them automatically tighten around her. She smiled and snuggled back into her boyfriend. This was her favorite way to fall asleep and was a perfect conclusion to a dull Friday.


	2. Breakfast, Video Game Merch,  Jobs, and Coincidences

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The chapter title explains things well enough

Aradia woke up alone on her couch. Recalling the night before with Sollux she looked around, a tad confused. The clock read 10:02, so she had gotten 9 hours of sleep, she calculated automatically. Then she inhaled deeply, catching the scent of bacon, which now that she listened, could be heard sizzling in the other room. Aradia smiled, then rose and pulled her blanket around her and walked into the other room. In the small kitchen was Sollux, already dressed, cooking eggs and bacon on a griddle.  
“Wow Sol I didn’t know you cooked.”  
“I don’t, but frankly AA, the last time you tried to make us breakfast you burnt the toast and almost burned the building down.”  
Aradia coughed indignantly, “The toaster was faulty.”  
“Yeah, after you set it on fire it was.”  
“It was an accident.” she whined, hugging him from behind.  
“Yeah, I know, thats the worst part, you’re actually that bad at cooking. So thats why i’m doing it. Go sit down please, its almost ready.”  
“Fine.” She moved to sit on one of the two chairs at the small table. “Hey Sol. Where did you even get this stuff? I don’t think I had bacon in my apartment…or eggs, or any of this actually”  
“Yeah, you didn’t. I woke up, showered, dressed, went to the store, got back, and started cooking. All before you woke up.”  
“A girl needs her sleep, alright?”  
“If there was a fire this girl would be in trouble because she sleeps through everything.”  
“I do not.”  
“AA, i’ve been up for an hour, and I haven’t tried to be quiet once the entire time. I had to go through your mess of pots and pans for god’s sake.”  
“uh.”  
“Exactly.”  


Sollux walked over carrying two plates of eggs, bacon, and toast. Aradia decided after the fire she wanted one that popped up automatically, in case she forgot again. Not that she forgot she put toast in or anything. Of course not. He set one in front of her and the other on the placemat next to her, where he would sit. Then he went back over to the cabinets, got out two glasses (mismatched) and filled them with orange juice, which she also didn’t have in her fridge last night. Then he came and sat next to her, and started to eat. Aradia followed suit. The eggs were pretty good, the toast wasn’t at all burnt and the bacon was cooked to perfection. And Aradia couldn’t even remember the last time she had orange juice.  
“Sol, you need to let me pay you back for this.”  
“For what? You bought the pizza and sodas last night.”  
“But this stuff is more expensive.”  
“AA it’s nothing”  
“Its charity”  
“Aradia, i’m eating it too, its a meal. It’s only fair. I will not let you pay me back on this one. I will however insist we do this sort of thing again, and then you can pay, if that makes you feel better.”  
“Fine. Hey you want to hang out later today, at four thirty or something?” This would give her time to get home after the dumb magic show, if she went. Sollux coughed a little startled, for what reason Aradia didn’t know.  
“Nah, not today AA. I have a thing on campus.”  
“Really? That sucks, I know you normally love having your Saturdays free.”  
“Yeah, the prof is bringing in some guest speaker. Might run late, and it only starts around 3. There's a workshop after and I might go out with some friendsleter too. I’ll see you tomorrow though. We still on for fro-yo?”  
“Absolutely.”  


The couple finished their food and a while after, Sollux said he ought to go to get ready. It was about 10:45 so Aradia got a shower. Since it was a college library and there were quite a few student workers the dress code was far from formal. She decided on a pair of jeans; her hiking boots; a t-shirt with her zodiac sign on the front (aries); and her favorite sweatshirt. The sweatshirt was red and had a gear on it in a different shade of red. It was game merch from a game Sollux, her, and a bunch of their other friends played: Sburb. In the game she was Maid of Time, so for a gift last christmas Sol had got her the time aspect hoodie. Sollux had the doom sweatshirt, as he was Mage of Doom. Actually, most of the friends she played with had gotten the hoodies, so it was sort of neat. She only knew of one other time player, Dave Strider. But it was cool. Actually he was cool. Dave was the total cool kid, from the dark shades she had NEVER seen him without, to the poker face he constantly kept. Dave and his 3 other friends had recently joined Aradia and her friend’s game, and Dave said his brother and his friends may want to join soon too. Sburb was super complicated, but was really fun, which made it worth the confusion of all the players.  
Aradia didn’t even know all the people she had originally played with in her session, even before Dave’s friends joined. In her session there were 12 players, so there could be one from each aspect and class. Sollux was the doom player; her friend Kanaya was the space player; her wheelchair bound friend Tavros was the breath player; Nepeta was the heart player; Nep’s friend Equius (who had very nervously hit on Aradia before) was void; and Vriska (who was some bitch who was constantly teased Tavros) was the light player. Those were the players she knew best. She knew of the mind player: Terezi and the blood player: Karkat through Sollux, but had only seen them for a few seconds in real life. There was a life player, a rage player, and a hope player as well, but she had only heard about them. Apparently the life player was a sweetheart but her boyfriend the hope player was a total douche. And the rage player was creepy, Sollux heard from Karkat, and supposedly wore full on clown makeup every day. They were definitely an interesting bunch, but in a good way she guessed. Most of them were actually going to school here, which was sort of how they decided to all play together: in a school chat site thing.

Aradia cursed under her breath. All this thinking had put her closer to late than she wanted to be. It was now 11:36 so she had 24 minutes to get there on time. Grabbing her purse and her ‘student worker’ tag from the shelf next to her door (where she would keep her car keys… IF SHE HAD ANY) Aradia headed out. She went down the stairs quickly and out the door. She dashed across the street, while she was still in the middle the light turned green. Some asshole beeped at her. For gods sake, this will make you like 10 seconds late, she thought to herself. Aradia passed through the familiar gateway of the overly tall and ornate cast iron fence surrounding the park and let out an audible breath. The park was always a better place. A calmer, safer place. And even though she could still hear the sounds of the road at the moment, she already automatically relaxed, seeing the trees and green grass and flower beds spread out in front of her. Now Aradia calmly picked her way through the park, seeing more of the obnoxious purple fliers around. Well, she mused, if this “magician” put half the effort into their tricks as they did into putting up fliers then the show couldn’t be that bad.  


By the time she exited the park she had to have seen at least 200 fliers. Well, maybe that was an exaggeration. But there were a lot. She hurried to the center of campus, where the library was located and pinned her ‘student worker” tag to her sweatshirt. Aradia walked through the library doors at 11:59 and was quick to punch in. After she was over the mild panic of almost being late, she nodded to Aranea, an upperclassman girl who was a manager of sorts. As she normally did, Aradia set to work re-shelving returned books. Aranea ran the desk, checking out books, and would occasionally have Aradia run and fetch something from the archives. Shelving books wasn’t really that bad, if you knew your way around the Dewey decimal system that is. Luckily, from all her time in the library in middle and high school, Aradia did. Things ran boringly until about 1:28 when Aranea asked her to take a patron back into the archives to look for something for a paper. That was slightly abnormal to begin with, but what really did it was who it was. Because right there, waiting to be led was none other than the pizza boy from the night before, Jake English. He looked as surprised to see her as she was to see him.  


“Gadzooks! Its you!”  
“Yes, it is me. Good to see you again, Jake. Now what do you need?”  
“Just some documentation on the different plants that used to be here, except i want first hand accounts, i’m looking for anything interesting.”  
“I hope that isn’t the assignment because I kind of doubt we had any interesting plants here. It's Rhode Island after all, hardly the Amazon.”  
“Maybe you’re right. I guess i’m just a tad homesick. Ah phooey, maybe I ought to do a project on the Amazon.”  
“Sure, its a great idea after all, you could work the whole deforestation angle too. What is your assignment?”  
“I’ll not bore you with that junk. Lets just see what the library has on it.”  


Aradia and Jake looked around in a while in an amiable silence. Out of nowhere the odd fellow then exclaimed something about good gravy. Aradia looked at him, “Did you find anything?”  
“Yes but thats besides the point. I didn’t realise you played Sburb”  
“Oh. Yeah, I do.” Aradia said surprised, looking down at the sweatshirt she had all but forgotten she was wearing. She was surprised he knew what it was, it wasn’t exactly the most popular RPG.  
“Yes, i’m a bit of a player myself, Page of Hope.”  
“i’m Maid of Time in our session.”  
“Well I assumed you were something of time, judging by the sweatshirt. Are there a lot of time players?”  
“What do you mean?”  
“My boyfriend’s kid brother. Well I say kid brother but really he’s only about a year younger than Dirk. But he’s a time player too.”  
“Dirk did you say?”  
“Yes, why?”  
“Thats familiar… What’s the last name?”  
“Strider.”  
“Oh! I get it, you’re dating Dave’s older brother!”  
Jake blushed a bit at the statement.  
“Yeah I am, but how do you know Dave?”  
“He and some friends joined our session.”  
“Wait, they joined your session?”  
“Yeah.”  
“Well isn’t that the darndest thing, we’re gonna link to your session too. Soon I think. We’ve been talking about it for a while.”  
“Wow this is the craziest thing, running into you like this, and now it turns out that you’re one of the four people who we were bound to meet for the game.”  
“It is crazy isn’t it? Oh! Well look at the time. I have to skidaddle.”  
“Okay. Aranea will check those out for you. Bye Jake!”  
“Yeah, see you later!”  


Work seemed to drag on for Aradia after that, but soon enough it was over. Punching out, she let Aranea (who honestly always seemed to be working) know she was leaving. Out on the front steps she took a deep breath of the early winter air. It was starting to get colder, soon she would need a winter coat to make the walk. But for right now, she was comfortable. Back inside the park, she paused in front of the turnoff that would take her to the magic show. Did Aradia honestly want to go to such a childish thing. No, not really, but she needed to get out more, she thought to herself as she started walking tords the stage area. Ugh. Here goes literally nothing, she thought, but why does it feel like such a big deal? She took a last deep breath and plunged into the crowd of people.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha yup, no Eridan yet. Next chapter though, next chapter. Also, sorry the ending got a little choppy...


	3. Magic Shows, Frustration, and Revelations

There was a surprising amount of people there for some dumb magic show. Aradia carefully made her way up into the middle of the bleachers into an empty row. The cold from the metal seat instantly started seeping through her jeans and she shivered. Looking around she had a pretty good view of everything going on. She could see the stage easily and could see the people filing into the bleachers. The show should be starting soon. Whatever it really is. Would a magic show really attract this many people? Aradia wondered. She didn’t think a dumb kids' thing would have anyone really coming to it. Maybe magic show was a code for something and she was about to get herself entangled in the matters of some strange cult. Someone was moving on stage. The ringleader! It must be. But no. She had seen too many action flicks. It really was a magician. At least Aradia thinks that is what he’s supposed to be. Because now, moving on stage is some guy in a horribly gaudy purple cape and black tophat with a purple band around it. It looked like he even had a purple stripe in his black hair. She also took note of the stupid black hipster-style glasses he was wearing. Yeah, either this guy was the magician or someone had let the patients of some asylum have a field trip. Now he was trying to call attention to himself. Aradia watched as the people in rows below her all looked to him. She saw a couple of people she knew: Kanaya with some blonde girl; Vriska sneering (at someone else thankfully); and Dave Strider, whose brother she now knew was dating Jake. It was strange how it had all fallen together like that but she was glad to have met Jake, and now at least she knew one of the new players who would come to their Sburb session. But back to the purple-clad guy on stage. He looked around, nodded once and took a deep breath before speaking loudly.  
“Welcome everyone! I’m glad you all decided to come today.”  


Aradia didn’t think he sounded glad at all, but nonetheless the audience murmured their agreement. There was something else about how he spoke too, but she couldn’t put her thumb on it.  


“Now how about we get this thing started.” It seemed like he stuttered. But just with his ‘W’ s. Not that Aradia would ever judge someone for that. Actually, her boyfriend lisped on his ‘s’ s. She didn’t really think about it though. She thought of it so little that it wasn’t even mentioned in this story so far. Woah, what the hell was that, Aradia thought. Story? Hmm thats an interesting way of thinking, if that thought was even hers. It kind of just popped into her head, which is concerning. But anyway back to the magician.  


“Fef!” He called to someone in the front row. Some girl in a fuschia dress got up quickly and dragged a folding table up on stage. It was a dick move in Aradia’s opinion to make her get the table by herself. But regardless of that the magician stood there as this ‘Fef’ set up the table, then dashed down behind the stairs returning with what looked like a pill bottle, a deck of cards, and a nickel. She then gave the magician a bright smile and left stage, returning to the front row. Aradia was too busy watching what he was doing though. He held up the pill container for the audience to see, turning it so they could see the cap, and scratching his finger over it. It was an ordinary bottle… Aradia had no clue what he was doing. Next he flipped the coin before lying it on the table again and fanned out the cards before straightening them back up. He placed the deck on the table and picked up the coin. He set the nickel on the lid of the pill bottle and set the deck of cards on top of the coin. then, holding it all together he slammed the bottle, coin, and cards on the table together. The coin fell into the pill container with a plink. He picked up the deck of cards by their sides and showed that the coin was missing from the top. And Aradia had seen, there was no way he slipped a card under the nickel in the beginning. But since this was a magic show it definitely had to be an illusion. She just couldn’t figure it out. It had to be simple. But she just couldn’t put it together. Well, it wasn’t all that impressive anyway. Aradia slouched while pouting. She had thought she would be able to see through the tricks though, and was a little disappointed in herself for not being able to. But he had to be good, for this many people to show up, she figured. So it wasn’t really her fault she couldn’t figure it out.  


He literally snapped his fingers so the ‘Fef’ girl would come and collect the things from the trick. She took the cards and bottle back behind the stairs, the whole time he watched her intently. Then called out that he of course still needed the deck of cards. It was a little strange, Aradia thought, that he would watch as she carried them away before asking for them back. Maybe he was just highly distacted?  


“For my next trick I am going to make a playin’ card levitate.” He called out loudly.  


Now this is definitely impossible, Aradia thought, so hopefully i will be able to see through this one. Or more accurately, see the strings. Down on stage he shuffled the cards. Aradia leaned forward intently, resting her elbows on her knees. He stopped shuffling the cards and pulled one out of the deck. It seemed random, but it couldn't be. She stared at the card as he turned it for the audience to see, knowing it had to be rigged, but not able to figure out how. He laid the card face down in his right hand and waved the left overtop. Then curling his bottom hand up a bit, the card slowly rose. Aradia’s eyes widened in surprise. The magician had a strained look on his face and his hand shook a bit as the card floated three inches or so under it. Miss-fuschia-dress-Fef trotted up on stage and proceeded to wave a pen on the underside of the card, back and forth, before pulling out and waving the pen over the top. So no strings. But how? Finally he dropped his hand and the card flopped onto his right palm. His eyes scanned the audience and he let out a small smile, upon seeing a child pointing to him and tugging their parent’s sleeve. He shuffled the card back into the deck before laying them out on the table into four rows of three.  


“Now, could I get a helper from the audience?”  


The same excited child jumped up and down. Surprisingly, the magician jumped down off the stage, his cape flowing back, before walking up into the bleachers. He picked his way to the little girl, who seemed to be about 6. He said something softly to the red-headed mom who nodded and stood up with her daughter. The trio walked back up to the stage and the magician turned back and nodded at someone in the front. Not surprisingly the same helper as always hurried back behind the stairs. Now on the stage the magician crouched to be at the girls level.  


“What’s your name, little lady?”  
She looked up at her mom standing behind her who murmured some sort of ‘go ahead’ before the girl quietly said “Mackana”.  


“Well, Mackana, I don’t know if you know this, but magicians can get pretty good at readin’ minds with practice. But it helps if they are trying to read other magicians minds, so the other magician can project their thoughts. So do you want to help me by becomin’ a magician too?”  


“Yes!” The little girl bounced excitedly on her toes as the magician put a smaller tophat (that Fef had just handed off to him) on her little blonde head.  


“So Mackana how about we do a practice readin’. So I want you to think really hard about your favorite color. Picture it in your mind. Are you doin’ that?”  


She nodded, and screwed her face up in concentration. He placed his fingers on either sides of his head and made a focused face.  


“I think i’m getting something! Is your favorite color blue?”  


“Yes!!!” Her eyes widened and she looked back at her mom, “Mom he really is magic, he read my mind.”  


The audience laughed among themselves, this one wasn’t hard to figure out, considering the little girl was wearing a dark blue dress over a sky blue long sleeved shirt with light blue tights underneath. Her blonde hair was pulled into two little pigtails with blue ribbon also. But Mackana wasn’t thinking of that, she was too impressed with him. Aradia had to give him props however, because it was clear he could be charismatic if he gave it half a mind.  


“Now that we’re all warmed up you’re gonna help me do a real neat card trick. I’m going to turn so I can’t see and i’m going to give you instructions. Okay?”  


“Yup.”  


“Mom can help you too, but i’ll be readin’ your mind so focus real well.” He moved to the front of the stage, in front of the table.  


“Now the first thing i want you to do is put your finger on a black card”  
Little Mackana did so, standing on her tiptoes to reach the table. She continued following his instructions as he gave them.  


“Now move your finger up or down to the nearest red card. Okay? Then move it left or right to the nearest black card. Still good? Okay. Next move diagonally to the nearest red card.”  
Her mom helped her with this one, as she didn’t seem to know the word diagonal.  


“Now move your finger up or down to the nearest black card and think hard about which one it is. Picture it in your mind again. Oh! I’m getting it, I see a rectangle. I’m seeing the color. Is that a number? I see it clearly now. Is your card the 3 of clubs?”  


“Uh, well, its a three, but it has a clover on it, not a club, whatever that is.”  
This got another chuckle from the audience as the adorable little girl clearly didn’t know much about card suits. The mom moved to whisper something in her ear and then she squeaked.  


“You WERE right!”  


And he was. But there was no way he was actually psychic. So there had to be a trick. But WHAT??? Ugh. She would have to look it up later, even if she did have a strict school-laptop-is-for-school-work rule. She could hardly ask him. Well. Maybe she could ask him. It was just unlikely he’d answer. The magician helped the little girl off the stage after telling her to take a bow. Aradia was a tad surprised he was letting her keep the hat, it was pretty nice, and doing these magic shows, with no charge at that, couldn’t pay well. Well that was his business. 

He did a couple of more tricks, occasionally asking for helpers. Aradia wasn’t able to see through even one of them. This was slightly disappointing, but there was a reason people came to these things: to be mystified. And while Aradia wasn’t mystified she wasn’t bored either. What she wouldn’t do to know how the tricks worked. It wasn’t that she really cared, it was just that it irritated her to have no explanation as to how he was doing the tricks. Her attention was once again drawn to the nameless magician as he called out loudly. 

“And for a final trick!” He called out, “I will need a very brave assistant.” By now it was evident that his ‘w’s were definitely stumbled over. Aradia watched as a couple of people threw their hands up in the air excitedly. Aradia took note of Kanya raising her hand too while she said something to her blonde companion. Just like Aradia was, the girl was surprised and it showed. She seemed to be asking why Kanaya would want to do something as nonsensical as this. Thats what Aradia was wondering at least. Kanaya was a calm and levelheaded girl. She couldn’t possibly believe any of this was actually real! Maybe she wanted to figure out how it was done. Yes, that was likely it, Kanaya seemed like the sort who would want to attain all knowledge about any subject. The most surprising thing was when the magician actually pointed to her. Kanaya rose gracefully to her feet. Today she wore plain green skinny jeans, a black and white abstractly striped top, and black flats. Hardly an outfit that called out for attention, but she managed to pulled it off in a way that would cause anyone to stare. Kanaya was Aradia’s most fashionable friend, with her always perfect short hair and her jade lipstick. Countless time the fashionista had begged Aradia to let her give her a makeover but she always refused, saying archeologists didn’t have to worry about makeup (or combing all those tangles out of her hair every day). Now she made her way to the bottom of the bleachers and up the stage’s stairs.  


“Now lets give a hand to our volunteer.” His voice also wavered on his ‘v’ s “So what is your name?”  


“It’s Kanaya, but you should know that considering that i’m in your English class.”  
He chuckled awkwardly before saying quietly, “sorry bout that”  


“It doesn’t matter.”  


“Well thanks for volunteerin’ anyway.”  


“Yes, well what am I to assist you with?” Kanaya spoke smoothly, as she always did.  


“This is our grand finale.” He said, now facing the audience. “And we are going to saw this young woman in half.”  
Kanaya rolled her eyes.

Now the magician made his way off stage to help Fef lift up two halves of a table on wheels. Lining up the two halves of the table he lead Kanaya to it. She lay upon the table.  


“Alright Kanaya, to make sure this trick goes well we need to restrain you. Do you consent to these restraints.”  


“Yes, if that is deemed necessary.” She actually sounded bored and laid there perfectly unperturbed as restraints were locked around her neck. Fef then moved and put on ankle restraints while the magician tied Kanaya’s hands.  


“Try to get yourself out.” He said.  


Kanaya struggled against the bonds but made no further progress than kicking her flats off. The assistant girl called Fef kicked them to the sides as she walked off stage to grab two halves of a box, one with a small hole in the top. Both halves of the box were fixed over Kanaya and the table and her still bound hands were pulled through the small hole by the magician. Now Fef came back with two large blades and the magician returned with a white chainsaw. Kanaya’s hands were seen flinching as he revved it up. The crowd, including Aradia, stared with awed expressions as he inserted the rapidly rotating blade through the division point in the box. Aradia was a tad puzzled, as something about this situation felt slightly familiar, yet wrong and a little ironic, but shook it off as she watched amazed as Fef and the magician shoved the large blades into the edge of both boxes before pulling them apart and spinning them, showing the audience that they were definitely separate. Aradia felt the shock on her face as she stared at the scene below her. The magician looked up at the audience. Aradia could have sworn he looked straight at her and upon seeing her expression, smiled, but she was probably wrong about that. Now the two on stage pushed the boxes back together, before pulling out the blades, with a bit of a struggle. Then they lifted the box covering Kanaya’s upper half, allowing the audience to see her slightly dazed (but still elegant) expression, before the other half of the box was pulled off, showing her still shackled ankles. The magician and his assistant untied and unlocked Kanaya, pulling her back up to her feet. The magician started organizing his things while the assistant aided Kanaya with getting her shoes back on and gestured for the audience to give her another round of applause. Once Kanaya was back in her seat the magician once more faced the audience.  


“Well, thats our show, and I thank you for coming out to see it. Any and all donations are appreciated and can be placed here.” He flipped his tophat off his head and set it on the front of the stage.  


Aradia remained in her seat as the crowd began to file out, some giving donations. She figured she would give asking him about the tricks a shot. It was a long shot. But still possible for him to tell her. Now only the last stragglers remained on the bleachers or around the stage. Down in the front row Aradia saw ‘Fef’ and some guy whose profile looked vaguely familiar from the back. He had his arm around her and from the looks of it she was laughing at something he had said. Aradia started picking her way down the stairs when suddenly Fef’s companion turned and she stopped dead in her tracks. It was Sollux. Her Sollux. Her Sollux who was supposed to be at a lecture. She felt tears rushing to her eyes and threatening to spill over as she stormed down the bleachers to the front row.  


“Hey Sollux. I didn’t know you were coming here today, we could have came together.” She said accusingly through tightly grit teeth.  


“AA!” He jumped a bit and pulled his arm off of Fef, looking at his girlfriend guiltily.  


The Fef girl seemed oblivious to the tension in the conversation, speaking brightly, “Yeah, we all could have come together. I’m Feferi, and as you could see, I help out Eridan with his shows.”  


Aradia automatically catalogued her new information: 1.) the girl’s name was Feferi  
2.) She either didn’t know Sollux was taken or was one hell of an actress 3.) the magician’s name was Eridan.  


Feferi continued, “Yeah I’ve known Eridan since we were guppies (like… the fish? Aradia wondered) I just met Sollux last week at campus and he’s been reel nice the whole time. How do you know him?”  


“Oh, you know.” Aradia watched Sollux out of the corner of her eye. Fine, he wanted to date her? Aradia wouldn’t stand in the way. “I met him on campus too.”  


“Oh, so you know him like me. I was a little worried you were his gillfrond (girlfriend??? What is with the fish puns?) when you showed up so angrily out of nowhere like that.”  


So she hadn’t been so oblivious to her anger and had considered the mess she could have been getting into. Aradia looked from Sol to Fef.  


“Nah. Sollux is entirely single.”  
Aradia was glad to notice that Sollux winced when she said this.  


“Oh. Well thats Fintastic (fin?)”  


“Mmm-hmm. Well I have to run. You kids have fun.”  


Aradia started walking briskly away. Sollux didn’t even call after her. Well fine. He could have his fresh start. And she would have hers. The tears started to well up again and she blinked them away, as they were starting to distort her vision. A bit late though, as she blinked she walked straight into Eridan. She looked up at him from the ground a bit dazed.  


“Hey watch where you’re goin’.” Then he looked down at her and was a tad surprised to see the tears on her face. “Now that won't do, come on get up.” He offered her a hand and pulled her up, pulling her over to the stairs and sitting down. He gently tugged her down next to him.  


“Now what’s wrong?”  


“I just found out my boyfriend cheated on me.”  


“Oh.”  


“Yeah.”  


“Well he’s an asshole anyway.”  


“He wasn’t though. He was so nice and sweet. And always considerate.”  


Aradia was now all out sobbing on some stranger’s shoulder. Eridan muttered to himself something to the effect of ‘real considerate’. Eridan took a deep breath before pushing her off his shoulder gently.  


“Look at this.” He said softly pulling a tube out of his sleeve. With a flick of his wrist it became a bouquet of artificial flowers. He held it out for her to take.  


Aradia giggled as she took it from him and spoke through her tears, “If only all your tricks were that easy to figure out.”  


“So thats what you were doing that made you look so ridiculously mad. Throughout the entire show you were trying to analyze my magic.”  


“Magic isn’t real.”  


“You seemed to believe it was when I sawed Miss Maryam in half. Your face showed just as much amazement as everyone elses.”  


So he had been looking at her. What a strange thing to do, watching a specific member of your audience, when you were performing.  


“Magic still isn’t real.”  


“Maybe not. But it looked real.”  


“How did you do it?”  


“Tsk Tsk, a magician never tells his secrets.”  


“Well then.”  


He stopped, sort of awkwardly then, and neither of the two knew what to say. Aradia rose to her feet.  


“Sorry about this.”  


“It’s not your fault so don't worry about it.”  


“Thanks. I’ll uh, go now. Good show, even if it is totally fake.”  


“Thanks.” He chuckled.

Aradia picked her way through the park slowly clutching the fake flowers. She looked down at them. They were his signature color, purple. But despite the vibrant color of the bouquet, the world seemed much darker than it had this morning. That so much could be changed in her life by one decision to go out both amazed and scared her. But what happened had happened, and she was determined to move on.


	4. Crying, Coping, and Web Surfing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> kind of a boring chapter but we cant rush these things; girl's getting over the disastrous end of a relationship.

When Aradia was back at home in her apartment was when it really set in: the fact that Sollux really had cheated on her. Why had this happened? Literally yesterday everything had been normal. They had done the same things they always did, the same things he was seemingly happy with. What had she done? What made Feferi better than her? Aradia walked over to the bathroom and peered in the mirror. While her eyes were a tiny bit puffy from the few tears that had spilled over she was still obviously the same girl she had was a week or a month ago. The same brown eyes as always looked back at her, surrounded by the same dark lashes. She had the same roundish face and knew where her dimples would show up if she could manage to summon a smile now. The same light brown curly hair fell around her face and down to the middle of her back. Sure, she wasn’t drop dead gorgeous, but she wasn’t so bad. She was always good enough for Sol before, who had given her many a compliment over the months they had dated. But that was over. It seemed that somehow this new girl was better. She definitely was pretty, especially in the dress with her makeup all done up. Aradia didn’t do her makeup very often, but did that make her not worthwhile? Or not a good person? No. It couldn’t. So maybe Feferi was beautiful whereas Aradia was more of the ‘cute’ sort. So what if Feferi had stunning aqua colored eyes and a tall slender frame. Just because Aradia had an inch of chub around her waist and had loads of curves that didn’t make her a worse person who deserved to be cheated on. No, this definitely wasn’t her own fault, Aradia decided.  


But there’s a difference between telling yourself something and following through with it. Even though she knew this was definitely Sollux’s fault, she still loved him enough to give him a chance with Feferi. Aradia kept telling herself that she was okay. And that she was okay with Sollux dating Feferi instead of her. But really Aradia just felt a little dead inside. And more than a little discouraged. Now Aradia found herself no longer able to choke back her tears, instead letting them fall freely. Grabbing the blanket that she had so recently draped over Sollux she made her way to the kitchen. She held the blanket in the front and kept it tight around her. She went to the freezer where she knew the other container of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream that she insisted he left alone was. She had wanted to herself, and now she certainly had it.  


She grabbed it and a spoon in one hand and went back through the living room to her bedroom. She set her ice cream and spoon on the bedside table next to her laptop for school and tucked herself into bed, sitting with her back against the headboard with her blankets pulled snug around her. Then she grabbed the ice cream and spoon. Prying the top off it and sitting it on the table next to her laptop she scooped out a generous scoop of the frozen confection. It was a good as it ever was. Which was sort of a comfort, at least some things will always be the same. Things like the rich flavor and the smooth texture of her favorite ice cream. Holding the container in one hand she reached for her laptop. Screw her rule, Aradia thought to herself, No one else follows it, and its not like i’m doing something terrible like watching porn or something. She clicked into chrome and simply typed ‘tu’ and hit enter, from the few times she had let herself forget the rule, her computer already knew the site that was her guilty pleasure: tumblr. Eating her ice cream she scrolled through her dash. This was the one website that she could waste all her time on and it slowly helped her to push the pain of Sollux’s betrayal to the back of her mind.  


She soon found herself giggling at stupid gifs and frowning gently at mildly sad Supernatural photosets. Yeah, she definitely classified her blog as a fandom blog. None of that Starbucks and constant selfie nonsense. Most the posts on her blog, which’s url was the same as her pesterchum handle, were either fanart, fanmusic, cosplays, and fanfics from her various fandoms; those funny stories that only people on tumblr seem to have; music and other things from her favorite bands; and other people’s selfies because everyone is just so adorable! Soon she saw a link to someone’s etsy and seeing all the positive comments and high number of notes she clicked over to it. She actually ended up favoriting the shop. Once she had more money she definitely would want to purchase one of the nebula necklaces. And probably the aries necklace. Clicking into her recent activity section she saw one of her other favorited shops had gotten in new items, to make masquerade masks. She almost dropped her ice-cream, It was exactly what she needed!  


Recently she had learned that she was invited to Kanaya’s 21st birthday party. Unsurprisingly, the event was going to be as elegant as the birthday girl. Kanaya’s older sister Porrim (Who was as fashionable as her younger sister, even if she had a more punk-ish, edgy style. She was a tattoo artist and had multiple piercings. Porrim was absolutely stunning and gave off a ‘better than you’ vibe when dealing with guys hitting on her, which was sort of amazing.) had rented out a banquet hall and was throwing a masquerade ball in her younger sister’s honor. It would have an open bar for those who had come of age and sparkling cider and non-alcoholic cocktails for the younger guests at the party, like Aradia, who wouldn’t turn 21 for a couple of months. But the problem with it being such an event is what to wear. Aradia hardly had things suitable for going out to dinner, much less a ball gown. But she would worry about that later. The party was in 3 weeks so she still had some time. Enough time to make a mask of her own at least.  


Aradia clicked add to cart on a black lace mask base that tied in the back with a ribbon. She was definitely doing this with her two favorite colors so she clicked into the store search bar and simply typed in ‘red’ and watched as various red things from the shop popped up. She was thinking a spray of feathers off one side would be all it takes to complete the mask, and started browsing through the red items, only paying mind to the feathers. She found an item marked as apple red applique feather pad. It looked like the ideal thing for her asymmetrical mask plans. All she really would have to do is trim it down a little and it would work perfectly. Adding it to cart she decided just being red would be too much and clicked on the side tab marked ‘ostrich feathers’. In short time she found something listed as ‘BLACK ostrich feather sprays’ which were shorter than the feathers she already found. These were more like tassels. If she grouped the two types together and attached them to the left side of the mask it would be simple and elegant. But Aradia still felt it was missing something. Something to cover where the feathers were attached. Oooh! Aradia scrolled back to the top of the page to the Etsy search bar and typed in ‘skull’. She scrolled through pages of tempting jewelry, leggings, shirts, and a few actual skulls including one from a human. Aradia pursed her lips, this wasn’t quite what she was looking for. She typed in ‘skull charm’ and was met with lots of jewelry: rings, necklaces, and bracelets. She moused over to the sort by button and chose ‘by lowest price’. Now she had results that were mostly just charms, because it cost less to have a charm than the necklace with it. Finally she found something she could work with: A flat skull charm covered in rhinestones. There was a hole in the top to put it in a necklace, but it was tiny, the size of the rhinestones and easily overlooked. She added it to cart and checked out, frowning slightly at how little time it took for money to be spent. Hopefully her items would get there in a few days so she could get to work with a glue gun. Actually she needed a glue gun. But she could get that later. Aradia was super excited. When she finished this it would look so great. She couldn’t wait to tell Sol.  


Oh.  


Well there went her great mood. Aradia felt the tears welling up a bit and looked over to the long forgotten half empty ice cream container. Snapping the lid back on she quickly ran to the freezer and put it in there before returning to her bed. She blinked back her tears as she plugged in her laptop and pulled the blankets up to her neck. Rolling onto her stomach she stared at a stain on the carpet, a few tears she couldn't blink back escaping, until she finally drifted off into sleep.  



	5. Friends, Comfort, and Sickeningly Sweet Sympathy

The next morning Aradia woke up in the same crumpled clothes she had put on yesterday before heading to work. It felt impossible that it was only Sunday. That only two days ago on Friday she was in a seemingly perfect relationship and yesterday it had all gone so downhill. Aradia belatedly pulled on her sweatpants and t-shirt she wore as pijamas, leaving her clothes in a small heap on the floor, rather than taking them to the hamper in the bathroom. There was no point to it anyway she thought as she got back into bed. Now that her clothes were more comfy She pulled the blankets around her again and closed her eyes for more sleep. She didn’t have anywhere to go and she didn’t want to think.  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  


A couple of hours later- Actually it may have been one hour. Aradia didn’t know, she just saw the room was brighter. But regardless of time, Aradia’s phone started going off. It was a generation 3 iphone, that after saving up, she bought from ebay and then had Sol fix up. Oh yeah, she thought, sniffing, she forgot about that. It just seemed so mundane at the time that she never realized how sweet it was for him to do that. Take time for her and her alone. Rolling over violently in bed she pulled a pillow over her head and waited until it stopped ringing. Aradia zoned out, somewhere in between sleep and wakefulness. The phone went off again to her surprise. Clearly someone was trying to get in touch with her. She ignored it and just laid there. Eventually it stopped ringing. Then it would start again. This process repeated for probably a good 15 minutes. Then the ringing would happen and wait a few minutes before starting again. The time between calls increased until after an hour probably it stopped altogether. Finally. Not that it really mattered, it was just a lot more quiet without the shrill ringing.  


Aradia gently cried. She knew it was dumb. He didn’t die. But it almost would have been easier if he did. Aradia was okay with death. She wasn’t okay with just being alone and knowing he was out with someone else. It was stupid and selfish. She knew he had a life besides her, just as she had one outside of him. But she had loved him. Even if she had never told him. And she had assumed he had loved her back, because her never saying it even if she felt it meant the same was likely true for him. But it wasn’t true she guesses. What even is love? Isn’t it just being a really close friend? So close you could tell them anything. Of course there were the cuddles, but those could be had platonically with friends. Kisses were less common with friends, but it wasn’t unheard of. So was love really anything different than friendship? Aradia guessed not. So it didn’t really matter, because friends left all the time. It was sad, but she had never cried like this. She was being irrational, Aradia kept repeating in her head.  


Eventually she stopped crying. She got out her laptop. She had a paper to write anyway. As google drive loaded she grabbed her black headphones from the bedside table and plugged them into her computer. Before she could play any music however, there came a gentle knocking at the door. Ugh. Aradia rested her head in her hands, had she forgotten to pay the rent for this month? She had the money from the library, but she tended to forget to take it down to the mailbox for the landlady, Well she could pay her another time. The knocking came again, louder, and Aradia wondered if the landlady was always so insistent when Aradia was out and she needed to speak with her. The knock came a third time after a little while and a fourth and fifth, each being given a short time in between, before it stopped. Aradia sighed in relief once it stopped seemingly for good. She had made minimal progress on her paper due to the distraction. While she had tried to drown it out, the music she used to drown things out and the music she listened to while doing homework were very different. So unfortunately she could very easily hear the knocking past the sound of piano coming from her headphones. But now whoever had been knocking was gone, so Aradia got back to working on her essay. It was on a specific dig site over in Egypt where multiple mummies were found. Aradia’s assignment was to look at diagrams and information on the bodies and try to determine what had killed them, and how that fit into history of the area. It shouldn’t be too hard now that she could focus.  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  


Aradia had just tapped out the last sentence of her conclusion paragraph when she heard a sharp click, even past the haunting piano melody of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. The click was the unmistakable sound of a lock being opened. Someone had broken into her apartment. She rolled out of bed wincing as it creaked slightly and tiptoed to the door peeking into the little kitchen. Nothing amiss so far. She treaded silently across the tiled floor and froze, standing directly next to the doorway to the living room, as she heard even footsteps tapping tords her. Whoever it was they weren’t even being quiet, they had probably assumed she was out because she hadn’t answered the door. The footsteps were coming directly at her, and then Kanaya walked in, as poised as ever. She was dressed in a jade transparent shirt over a darker green tanktop; black low rise skinny jeans; and black leather combat boots. Kanaya quickly surveyed the room and when her gaze locked on Aradia, directly to the left of her, she wasted no time in flinging her arms around her in a tight embrace. She held Aradia tight in her grip and spoke softly, “I’m sorry.” Aradia hugged her back, she didn’t have to ask what she was sorry about, it was evident that somehow Kanaya had found out what had happened with Sollux. But just having someone there and knowing that it was public information sent her back into tears. It was completely stupid, Aradia thought as she started to softly sob into Kanaya’s neck. Kanaya patted the back of her head and made soft ‘shoooshh’ sounds meant to be comforting. Aradia heard someone else walk into the kitchen and looked up to see none other than cool kid Dave Strider. In his one hand he held lockpicking tools (which is clearly how they had gotten in) and in the other he had a grocery store bag. Upon seeing Aradia’s tears he looked slightly taken aback, for a second losing control of his perfect poker face. He cleared his throat and held up the grocery bag, pulling out a jug of apple juice. “I thought you might need this, because of… nevermind. Just remember, if you need me to kick his ass I totally got you. Us time players need to stick together. Stick together like the opposite poles on a magnet, cept we’re like some weird scenario where the same poles attract because we’re made of the same stuff. And its tough as nails. You can get through this like a hot knife through butter. But for the record I totally have your back.”  


Aradia wasn’t sure if Dave always rambled like this or if it was just because he was thrown off or made nervous by her tears. It was probably some of both, she thought as she pressed her face back into Kanaya’s neck. She heard him set the juice down on the table and walk out of the apartment, closing the door behind him. Kanaya pulled her gently into her bedroom and Aradia moved to sit on the bed. Kanaya picked Aradia’s hairbrush up from her dresser and stood behind her, starting to gently brush her hair. Without prompting Aradia started choking words out around her tears.  


“Is it my fault though? What didn’t I do?”  
“It isn’t your fault Aradia. You couldn’t have done anything to prevent it.”  
“But why wasn’t I good enough?”  
“You are good enough. Maybe you just aren’t for him. Sometimes people just aren’t as good for eachother as they think they are. It’s nothing that you could help. Maybe he just wanted a change.”  
“I can’t even bring myself to hate her though.”  
“Why do you think you need to hate her?”  
“She stole him”  
“She didn’t steal him, she didn’t know. She’s as much a victim as you are, if she decides to go with him now. She just doesn’t know it.”  
“He’s not going to do the same thing to her though.”  
“I don’t think so either.”  
“Who even is she though. I just know her name.”  
“Feferi Peixes. Wealthy daughter of some boat company or something of that variety. Majoring in marine biology. Uses fish puns in conversation. Witch of Life in our Sburb session.”  
“Wait! She’s our life player?”  
“You didn’t know that?”  
“No, I thought she was some entirely random girl.” Aradia groaned aloud. “No wonder he left me for her. She was always so cheerful. And recently he’s been spending alot of time in the game with her but I didn’t think anything of it because i was so busy, Ugh I’m so STUPID!”  
“You aren’t stupid. You were just preoccupied. Its perfectly acceptable to be busy. Sometimes its better.”  
“But isn’t she supposed to be dating the hope player?”  
“They aren’t actually dating from what i’ve heard. But he’d date her if he could. Unfortunately for him, she sees him as a brother.”  
“Oh.”  
“Yeah.”  


Kanaya pulled Aradia’s hair back and started twisting it into a braid. Her hands worked quickly and effectively and soon she had it braided all the way to the bottom and tied it with a hair tie laying on Aradia’s dresser. Then Kanaya spoke up.  


“You need to get out though, you shouldn't just mope here. It isn’t good for you.”  
“But I don’t want to go out. I have nothing to do.”  
Aradia could hear the smile in her voice when she said, “Funny you should say that.”  
“Oh no. What have I gotten myself into?”  
“Nothing yet, I was just going to ask if you wanted to go out dancing with me and some friends.”  
“Who?”  
“Well it would probably be you, me, Nepeta, Terezi, and likely Vriska, although I know you two don’t get along. And Rose of course.”  
“Rose?”  
“The Seer of Light. Dave’s half sister.”  
“Oh. Of course.”  
“Mmm-hmm”  
“And where would we go?”  
“Probably just some club close to here. Dancing. Some drinks. Well, not for us probably, but i’m sure if we put any effort into procuring alcohol then we could manage it, but i’ve never known you to drink.”  
“When is this whole thing happening?”  
“Later tonight. You’d have time to grab a shower and get ready before I picked you up. Or if you’d like I could come early and help do your makeup and pick out clothes.”  
“I don’t even have anything made for clubbing!”  
“Then i’ll definitely be over early with some things to pick from.”  


Aradia halfheartedly protested, “It’s fine! I really don’t have to go.”  
Kanaya frowned and looked over at the trashcan, overflowing with used tissues and the ice cream container. Then she looked pointedly back at Aradia, daring her with her eyes to continue telling her how she was fine.  


“Ugh. Alright. I’ll go.”  
“Excelent.”  
“What time will you be here?”  
“I should show up at about 7:30. That gives you a good 4 hours or so to do any school work you need and to rest up and shower.”  
“Alright.”  
Aradia walked her to the door.  
“Thank you.", Aradia said softly.  
Kanaya smiled.  
“It’s nothing any good friend wouldn’t do.”  


After she was gone Aradia sighed. It was going to be an interesting night.  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> once again, sorry it took so long and sorry so little happens. Thank you for reading it though! <3 Aprille~  
> P.S. This chapter is dedicated to the anon who pestered me to get on with it.


	6. Clothes, Bribery, and Makeup

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kanaya gets Aradia all dressed up

As it had the first time hours ago, Kanaya’s knock was polite when it sounded through Aradia’s apartment. However, unlike last time, Aradia answered the door after she heard it the first time. She opened the door for Kanaya and frowned when she noticed that her friend was holding multiple hangers with various shirts, skirts, and dresses. Kanaya in turn frowned at seeing Aradia wearing jeans and a t-shirt with damp hair pulled back in a ponytail. Aradia watched as her friend, still in the same outfit as earlier (but with flashier makeup and also some bracelets) rushed to hang the clothes she brought on the top of a door and sat her purse next to it. After that Kanaya hurried and pulled the hair tie out of Aradia’s hair. She shot her a scolding look and said firmly, “You know that this will crease your hair if it’s still damp.” Standing behind Aradia, Kanaya started scrunching Aradia’s hair. Aradia squirmed uncomfortably but didn’t say anything. She knew Kanaya was doing it to give her naturally curly hair a boost and hopefully get rid of any crease that could have been formed by the restricting hair tie. Once Kanaya seemed at least partially sated she moved to where she had hung the clothing.

“Now, I brought five things that we can build off of if need be with your own wardrobe.”  


“Alright fine, but are you sure this is necessary?”  


“Absolutely.” Kanaya stated surely, looking Aradia over again.

Aradia peered around her at the clothes hanging on the door. The top object appeared to be a jade green pencil skirt. It was a far cry from anything Aradia ever wore and she was sure Kanaya knew that. Kanaya followed her eyes.  


“What do you think of this one?”  


“Green isn’t my color.”  


“You could shake it up.”  


“Pencil skirts aren’t my thing.”  


“It wouldn’t hurt to try it on, would it?”  


“It could.” Aradia pouted.  


“Just try it on, okay?”  


“Fine.”

Kanaya politely looked away as Aradia shimmied out of her jeans and tugged up the tight skirt. Kanaya crossed the room and took the second clothing item off its hanger and tossed it in Aradia’s direction. Aradia, who was still trying to adjust the skirt so it would be comfortable, got thwacked in the face with it. It was some sort of black long sleeved top. It seemed entirely basic Aradia noticed in relief. She pulled off her t-shirt and pulled the shirt on. However now that she was putting the tight fitting black shirt on she noticed that it wasn’t so simple as she had imagined. In the front of it there were cut out shapes for decoration. The one in the center was a rounded diamond shape and dipped enough to display a bit of cleavage. On either side of the diamondish shape were vaguely triangular shaped cut outs, with the point down. Aradia moved into the bathroom to look in the mirror. The three decorative cut outs together kind of formed a larger down pointing triangle. Aradia wouldn’t really know how to explain the shirt to someone verbally if she tried. (A/N neither do I.) All she knew is between the shirt with the decorative cut outs and the pencil skirt she felt kind of stupid. Kanaya walked into the bathroom and joined her in front of the mirror.  


“Tuck in the shirt.”  


Aradia rolled her eyes and did as she was told. She guessed it looked minimally better as a high waisted skirt with the fancyish black top under it. But it was still like nothing she would wear and she hardly felt like wearing it for hours.  


“Kanaya what am I even wearing?”  


“A jade green medium length pencil skirt and a black cotton fitted shirt with cut outs for decorative purpose.”  


“Okay nope, after that analyzation I really don’t want to wear it.”  


“You look fine in it.”  


“But it’s not comfy.”  


“Beauty and comfort don’t always come as a set.”  


“I’m not wearing it.”  


Kanaya sighed.  


“Look. I know you’re trying really hard. And I appreciate it. I do. I just. I don’t want to do this. I should just stay home. I’m going to just bring down spirits. You should just go. Have fun without me.”  


Aradia gently pushed Kanaya out of the bathroom tords the door.  


“Aradia, you can't just stay in your apartment forever.”  


“Sure I can.”  
She raised an eyebrow, “Really? Dropping out didn’t seem like your type of thing. Just think of tonight as an adventure. It is in a way. You don’t normally go dancing. So lets go explore some clubs.”  


“You really think that’s gonna make me want to know. Just because you said it could be an adventure.” She scoffs.  


“If you go i’ll buy you a skull.”  


Aradia turned her head to look at her so quickly she was worried she’d snap her own neck.  


“You mean it?”  


“Would I say it if I didn’t?”  


Aradia considered this for a second. “Probably not.”  


“Exactly.”  


“So all I have to do is go tonight?”  


“Yes.”  


“One more condition, okay?”  


“I’m listening.”  


“I don't wear this.”  


Kanaya let out an airy laugh. “Okay fine, lets take a look at the other things I brought.”

She walks with you back to where the clothes are hanging.  


“I didn’t really think you would wear that anyway.”  


“Then why’d you make me try it on?!”  


Kanaya laughed again. “I wanted to see you wear something nice for once.”  


“Hey!” Aradia had to laugh though, that was so Kanaya. And she knew that her friend only wanted to make her feel better. She also knew that whether she wanted it to or not, it was working. Aradia turned to look suspiciously at the other three items of clothes. “How about this time you give me one you think I’ll actually wear.”  


“That’s fair enough I suppose.Let me guess, you're not really in favor of wearing any sort of skirt or dress out, are you?”  


“Not to go dancing in what’s probably dark, crowded, and full of creeps.”  


I thought this might happen, I had hoped you might give it a chance, but don’t worry, I did bring something I think you may find more your style.”  


Kanaya moved two of the remaining hangers off to the side and pulled something from the last one. After handing it to Aradia, Kanaya walked back through to the bedroom. Aradia followed after her, curious, while examining what was clearly a shirt of some sort. It was black and appeared highly layered.  


“Go ahead, try it on. I’m just getting you a pair of jeans to go with it”

Kanaya knew by now (from all the other times she ‘needed’ to dress up Aradia) where her clothes were and started digging through the drawer to find the best looking pair of jeans. Aradia wiggled out of the skirt first, then pulled the first black shirt off. The shirt wasn’t all that bad, but she wouldn’t admit that to Kanaya or she’d probably either insist on Aradia keeping it and wearing something other than sweatshirts or she would decide there was some hope in remaking Aradia’s wardrobe and drag her out shopping again. And while Aradia loved her friend, shopping with her was a complicated and long process that involved many stores where the numbers on the price tag for one thing were higher than the numbers on her monthly grocery bill.  


Aradia pulled on the new shirt, it was a halter top and the only thing that prevented it from being strapless were the relatively thick black strings tied onto the decorative ring thing that was on the front of the shirt. She tied the strings behind her neck into a bow, which probably wasn’t how Kanaya would do it but it was good enough for her. After that she readjusted the top and went back in the direction of the bathroom mirror.  


“How about you get some pants on first?” Kanaya asked, polite as ever. Kanaya handed her what she (and clearly Kanaya had) recognized as her tightest denim skinny jeans. Aradia jumped into them (as is the way to get on skinny jeans) and buttoned them. She then walked back to the bathroom. Aradia had to admit, Kanaya knew what she was doing. The ripped layers on the top hid any chub she had and the top accentuated her chest. The jeans made her legs look killer and she could already tell what shoes Kanaya would pick. As Aradia had guessed, seconds later Kanaya walked into the bathroom holding her black combat boots. Aradia slipped her feet into them and zipped them up, effectively hiding her mismatched socks (who had time for that anyway. She was a college student, she wasn’t made of time (even if she was maid of time in Sburb)) Kanaya hummed thoughtfully, standing next to her.  


“What?” Aradia asked.  


“Hair…”  


“Ugh, not this.”  


“It has to be slightly edgy with that outfit, and slightly edgy is good for someone going through a breakup.”  


“Kanaya i’m not trying to get back in the dating game.”  


“Of course you aren’t, I wouldn’t want to either yet if I were you. It’s been one day. However looking edgy could help steer people away from you. I hardly think you want to be pestered by creeps in the club.”  


“If thats such a possibility then why am I going.”  


“You’re going because I promised you a skull. I’m insisting you go because i’m your friend and I can see you need to go have some fun.”  


Aradia pouted as a response.  


“Now lets see. I really can't give you a look thats insanely edgy because you have neither straight, layered, or short hair. But I believe I have an idea that will give us what we want without having to do the unthinkable and change your hair permanently.”

Kanaya left the room and returned a minute or so later rolling in Aradia’s office style chair with her purse setting on top of it. Kanaya pressed down the lever with her foot to adjust the chair’s height and did so, putting it at it’s highest setting. She moved her purse to the counter and gestured for Aradia to sit. Aradia did so and watched in the mirror as Kanaya took various bottles and containers out of her purse and set them on the bathroom counter. By now Aradia’s hair had mostly air dried and curled up in its strange inconsistent way. Kanaya grabbed the first bottle / can thing and started shaking it up. After a minute or so of rapid shaking Kanaya took the top of and shot a large amount into her hand. It was foam and expanded and on closer inspection of the can which was again on the counter Aradia could see it was mousse. Kanaya scrunched Aradia’s hair with the white foam to assist the natural curls even further. She seemed to be foccusing on the ends of her hair. She grabbed a comb off the counter and combed to emphasize separate curls even further and scrunched again. This proccess was repeated a couple of times. Next Kanaya grabbed Aradia’s bath towel from its hook on the wall and spread it over Aradia’s shoulders while lifting her hair in the other hand. Aradia had no clue why but knew better than to question her friend. Kanaya grabbed a spray can from the counter, it had no label so Aradia didn’t know what it was but Kanaya misted it over the ends of her hair. She didn’t spray evenly either, she sprayed up and down instead of left to right and Aradia could tell the distance was inconsistant. This lasted a while and a strong chemical scent permiated the bathroom. Kanaya waited a minute before taking Aradia’s hair in her hands after grabbing a hairtie pulling it into a ponytail that was tight against her head but was lowset. Kanaya then started twisting her hair and pulled it upwards with one hand. The other hand sought out one of those hinged hair clips that you squeezed the backs of together to get the teethed bottoms to separate before clipping it into your hair. Did those have names? Aradia wondered to herself for a second. Well regardless of if they did or not Kanaya found a large clear one on the counter and used it to clip the part of Aradia’s hair that was tightly twisted to the rest of her hair. The teeth on the clip scraped against her scalp and pulled uncomfortable before settling more comfortably into Aradia’s hair while still holding it against her head. Now Aradia could see what Kanaya had been doing to the tips of her hair. The tendrils were highly separated and curly and also now painted black.  


“Uh. Kanaya. That’s temporary, right?”  


“Of course it is. It will wash out of your hair the first time you shower and will also wash out of the towel. Now let me finish it.”

Kanaya pulled the untwisted hair that stuck out from the top of the clip in all different directions to cover the clip and fan out and hang nicely. Kanaya was a miracle worker. She was right, it did look edgy and Aradia had to admit she liked it. It pulled her hair up nicely too which would be nice as the club was bound to be warm with all those thrashing bodies in there.  


“Now for makeup. We still need it to be edgy.”

She spun Aradia’s chair around so they were facing eachother. She opened one of the containers on the counter now behind Aradia and produced a liquid eyeliner.  


“Now please keep still. This is the good stuff. If this gets messed up it stays that way, there is no going back with it.”

Kanaya used her left hand’s index finger to stretch Aradia’s eye so she could easily paint the eyeliner on. It would give Kanaya easier access to the area directly above her eyelashes where it could be hard to get eyeliner though, so it was okay. Aradia stiffened slightly as the cold brush touched her left eyelid but didn’t move aside from that. Aradia felt it draw across her eyelid once, twice, three times before Kanaya let go of the skin near her eye and it reverted back to its normal shape. Next Kanaya moved on to the other eye and repeated the process.  


“Do me a favor and tilt your head up, look at the light, or something else up there please.”  


Aradia did as she was asked and Kanaya moved on to lining the bottom of her eyes. Aradia kept her eyes wide so she wouldn’t smudge it even after Kanaya finished her second eye. Kanaya got out black mascara next. She didn’t need to be told again, Aradia looked up at the ceiling without prompting. Kanaya did two coats of mascara before getting out eyeshadow and a brush. Aradia closed her eyes and focussed on keeping her face relaxed as Kanaya started brushing on eyeshadow. The two were content in a comfortable silence. After a short while Kanaya gently and intentionally smudged the eyeshadow outwards on her eyes and then gave a satisfied hum.  


“If you would open your eyes and let me observe my handiwork, please.”  


Aradia obliged and she saw Kanaya give her a smile and a nod.  


“Lipstick is probably something we’ll want for tonight.”  


She produced a deep red 24 hour lipstick thing. It wasn’t just a tube of lipstick though. She got out the applicator for the color and Aradia pursed her lips. Kanaya carefully applied it.  


“Now we wait for it to dry.”  


After a minute or two Kanaya opened the other side of the thing and spread a balm of sorts over the color.  


“This will seal it. This is of a good quality, you won’t have to worry about putting more on any time tonight, even if you do have a drink or eat. It really does last a full twenty four hours if you need it to.”  


“So now are we…”  


“You're ready.”

Aradia spun her chair around again. She. She didn’t even look like herself. Kanaya had given her fierce winged eyeliner and smokey eyes. Her hair could be seen poking out and up at different angles in a bewitching manner. The red lipstick was bold and brought attention to her full lips. Kanaya was definitely a miracle worker.  


“Thank you.”  


“You don’t need to. I’ve been wanting to dress you up as long as we’ve been friends. Although waiting for you to have great emotional strain before pouncing was low on my part.” Kanaya smiled, her black painted lips curling up at the edges charmingly. “So, shall we be on our way?”  


“Ugh fine. What do I need?”  


“The same things you normally would: ID, money, phone.”  


“Why did I let you talk me into this again?”  


“I think I made you agree.”  


“Right. So are we heading straight there?”  


“We’re picking up Rose as well.”  


“Well. Lets get this over with.”

After they got all of Kanaya’s things together and Aradia made sure she had the few items necessary tucked into a black leather wristlet, they headed out the apartment door. Aradia mentally said goodbye to her comfort zone and hello to risk taking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't hate me. I'm sorry this update took forever. You guys should bug me to update when i start taking too much time like this.


	7. Clubs, Dancing, and Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crew hits the club

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sit back and relax cause this is a looooooong chapter. Also special thanks to tumblr user cutiesmith for clothes ideas for everyone and for helping me out of a bit of a jam with the scent of teal. :)

Down on the street the two girls got into Kanaya’s car after it’s owner had hung her clothes off a hook situated in the back seat. It was a jade green car, and Sol had once told her it was a 2010 Holden Commodore. Kanaya’s family was relatively well off, and her parents had bought her a car when they sent their precious daughter off to school. Kanaya got in on the driver’s side and Aradia slipped into the shotgun seat. Kanaya started the car and they started driving. The radio; turned to some pop station quietly was the only sound in the comfortably quiet car. While Aradia had no car of her own she had learned to drive and had a driver’s license. Sollux had actually taught her mostly. By the time she was old enough for high school she had learned how to be normal enough to not just get bounced around and so she ended up in a foster home near Sollux for her four high school years. They had gone to the same high school but only really started talking when they learned they were going to the same college. That had been when he offered to teach her. Her foster family for those four years wasn’t exactly the nurturing or teaching type. Aradia wasn’t really sure why her foster mother even took on a foster daughter. Her foster mother, June, was a strong willed Japanese American woman. She worked hard and near constantly, though Aradia never found out exactly in what business. But whatever it was, it wasn’t a home topic. June was definitely a character, terrifying at times and understanding at others. But as much as a character June was, she was outshined by her biological daughter, Damara.

Damara was…  
Interesting?  
Very into culture?

Aradia supposed that could be argued. Damara took her Japanese heritage very seriously. She took incentive to learn Japanese online and encouraged her mother only speak to her in it. Unfortunately from what she had heard from June, it wasn’t formal or particularly good or accurately formatted Japanese. What Damara spoke was pretty much a ‘google translate language’. Google translate languages were something Aradia had learned about when she took Spanish. While google does some great things, apparently its translator isn’t the greatest and will give bad sentence structure and use strange things in phrases. So a game Aradia often played with her middle school friends was one where you typed something in English, translated it to something foreign, and then back to English and laughed about how muddled it got. The point was Damara spoke mostly in shitty Japanese innuendos from what Aradia could figure out. Her statements were often accompanied by crude gestures so it wasn’t all that hard to figure out she wasn’t chatting about the weather. But Aradia didn’t really think anyone knew exactly what she was saying all the time. And on top of that Damara smoked near constantly. Normally it was cigarettes but Aradia had seen her smoking a blunt with her friends once or twice. And that was her business, but neither she nor June had taken much time to teach Aradia to drive. So Sollux had. He taught her in his hideous mustard yellow junker in a parking lot of a church. He’d even taken her for the driving test and had taken her out for ice cream after she passed it. Sollux honestly had been her best friend before he was her boyfriend. But that was before. Aradia wondered offhand if she was over reacting? Maybe he and Feferi were just friends. But he had his arm around her. And he also hadn’t denied it, only looked guilty. Hadn’t called after her. No. This wasn’t Aradia’s fault. And now she could move on. 

The car slowed and came to a halt and Aradia really looked outside instead of absently staring. Kanaya had pulled up the car to the end of a driveway of what looked more like a science laboratory than a house. Yet there came Rose out of the front door, dressed to kill. Now as she took shorts quick steps down her driveway Aradia looked at what she was wearing. Rose had on a relatively short black dress. It was sleeveless and the very top was black lace that continued over the whole dress with a layer of purplish gray fabric under it. The bottom had black tulle sticking out. How she managed to walk so quickly down a slanted driveway in her shoes (which looked to Aradia kind of like a cross between black tennis shoes and heels) was beyond her grasp as well. Aradia looked back at Kanaya and saw her beaming past her at Rose. Well, since Aradia wasn’t in a conversational mood and Rose could be She opened her car door and switched to sitting in the back on the opposite side of the clothes, leaving the passenger door open. Kanaya looked back at her as Rose started situating herself in the car. 

“That wasn’t necessary.” 

“Yeah, you didn’t have to do that.” Rose seconded. 

“Nah, it’s fine. I sat there on the way here.” 

“Well, thank you then. ” Rose said as Kanaya pulled out into the street. 

Rose’s fingers tapped distractedly on the top of the compartment between the two front seats. On her wrist she had a brass bracelet with an octopus on it, it’s tentacles twisted across the top of the two bands that held it on her wrist. This was fitting, Aradia decided, as she knew Rose’s pesterchum (the texting app all the kids communicated for the game with) was tentacleTherapist. She looked over at Kanaya. 

“Can I borrow your lipstick to touch this up.” 

“Certainly, you’ll find it inside the zipper pocket in my purse which is on the floor next to you. Also, if you could, would you please remove all the excess hair supplies that I needed to fix Aradia up. You can pass them to her in the back. Aradia you can leave them on the seat next to you.” 

Rose followed through these actions, passing the cans and bottles and boxes back to Aradia who in turn set them next to her under the clothes. After Rose was satisfied with the black purse being clutter free she fished a tube of black lipstick out of the pocket. She went to work on applying it while looking in the mirror situated on the pull down sun visor. Once she finished perfecting her look she glanced at Aradia in the mirror before she closed it. 

“Miss Maid of Time, we’ve never really talked.” 

“No, we never really have. I wasn’t exactly available to talk in the game when you first joined our session, I was a bit tied up with robot things.” 

“So, have you ever been to this club before?” 

“No.” 

“I was under the impression you didn’t even know which one we’re going to?” 

“I don’t” 

"So you’ve never been out dancing before?” 

“Not really. It isn’t exactly my thing. Kanaya’s dragging me out. As if it wasn’t enough breaking into my apartment.” 

“That was really my fault.” 

“How so?” 

“Well it was my brother after all. I told Kanaya I could get him to go over and unlock your door after she called me and gave me the rundown. She was worried when you wouldn’t answer your phone or door. And I know Dirk has taught Dave all sorts of useful things. So I called him up and begged a favor. Of course we had to explain to him too. So i’m also sorry that pretty much everyone knows now.” 

“I. Yeah. I am too. It’s okay though. I mean, it isn’t and i’m not. But I will be.” 

Rose turned to smile sadly at her over the seat. “Let’s just try to let go a bit tonight.” 

The rest of the car ride passed uneventfully and before they knew it the car was parked down the street from the club they had chosen. Aradia read off the car’s clock that it was about nine at night. 

“Isn’t nine a little early?” Aradia wasn’t sure but it seemed like nightclubs should be more… you know… at night. 

“Rates go up after ten o’clock, it goes from ten dollars to twenty.” Rose explained. 

“And as this is your first time it may be better for you to start out here when the club is slow so you will be ready for it in full swing.” Kanaya added. 

“Plus now we don’t have to wait in a long line.” Rose continued. 

“Okay okay I got it! Lets just get this thing over with.” Aradia laughed. 

The three girls started walking down the sidewalk, their heels all making loud click sounds that were almost lost among the sounds of cars on a nearby road. Out in front of the club the bouncer collected their money and inspected their IDs. He grabbed a rubber stamper from a table and pressed it firmly into an inkpad before pushing a stamp in bright red onto Aradia’s and Kanaya’s left hands. On further inspection Aradia could see it read ‘NO DRINKS’ In block-y capital letters. The bouncer gave a quick speech on how it was the club’s way of marking who not to sell drinks directly to so they couldn't get tied up in any legal mess and that if someone else bought them a drink the club couldn’t be at blame. He also said the dye faded after about twelve hours and wouldn’t wash off. Rose asked for a stamp too, even though she was over twenty-one. The bouncer gave her one, slightly surprised to be actually asked for a restriction such as that to be given. 

Once they were inside Aradia shot a questioning glance at Rose. 

“I had a bit of a fling with the drink back in high school. It wasn’t good. I try to avoid it now.” 

Aradia nodded her understanding. The club was half dark with neon lights flashing, just like in movies and the music was loud enough that you could feel the bass thumping. Suddenly from somewhere behind them there was a loud high pitched cackling laughter. 

“Well look who’s here!” Terezi didn’t seem to notice the irony in her saying that. Or maybe she did, she had a strange sense of humor. “Aradia you smell strongly of black licorice tonight, I miss the raspberry.” 

“You can blame Kanaya for that, she dressed me up.” 

Terezi’s synestesia had taken quite some time to get used to. Terezi was blind, she had been since a childhood sickness with a fever just too high. But her synesthesia made up for it a little bit, that’s what she said anyway. The wild redhead could smell colors, matching them up with familiar flavors. Because of this she often dressed vibrantly. At the moment she was wearing form fitting stretch jeans that were colored with splotches in two shades of teal. Teal was one of her favorite colors, to her it smelled like “1C3 COLD BLU3 R4SPB3RRY SLUSH13S!!!” and she wore it frequently. Her shirt was a bright red, her second favorite color because of the cherry scent it had. The shirt was a casual off the shoulders thing and it was patterned with dragon scales. Another one of her interests were dragons and she had tons of brilliantly colored home-made dragon plushes she called scalemates sitting all over her apartment. She even sold them on etsy to anyone who wanted them. Terezi was studying law, but you really couldn’t tell that looking at her dancing wildly off to the side with Rose and Kanaya, her trademark cherry red glasses bouncing on her nose. Aradia slunk over to the wall. She really wasn't one for dancing. Terezi wasn’t having this though, calling out loudly, “I smell you sneaking away there Miss licorice!” Terezi grabbed her hands and drug her out on the floor, forcing her to jump around with her to the beat. Aradia laughed, this was all so ridiculous, but it was kind of good to be out, about, and active. After a little bit she felt arms thrown around her neck and a high pitched voice called out “Who do we have here meow?” Nepeta, in her true to self way, automatically replaced now with meow. The petite girl had her short, dirty blonde hair down with a cat ear headband firmly on her head. She was wearing a daring olive green minidress and a simple silver medallion around her neck. Olive green stones dangled from her ears and matched her dress exactly. It was more lowcut than Aradia would choose to dance in but Nepeta was a partier all the way through. She threw herself right into the beat fluidly moving as she continued to talk to the group. “I was worried Equihiss wouldn’t let me come tonight but he said as long as one of you get me home safe it was fine.” 

Kanaya laughed, “I think his concern is justified. Last time you and Terezi got entirely intoxicated and ended up live action role playing in the park.” 

Terezi jumped in now, “It was fine.” 

“Terezi you tried to bite a passerby.” Kanaya countered. 

“He was too close to my nest. It was justified.” 

“You guys were found the next morning by the local police sleeping in the bushes after Equius called them because Nepeta didn’t return to their flat.” 

Nepeta gave Kanaya an exasperated look, “Oh I know it. He spent a furry long 15 minutes lecpurring me on the purroper way to go out for a night. He doesn’t even go out! I mean he’s my best friend but lets be real fur a second, what a boring guy. Next time we’re bringing him here with us.” 

“Oh i’m sure he’d appreciate that.” 

“Well, maybe if he had a girlfriend…” Nepeta glanced at Aradia for a second, thoughtfully before shaking her head. Aradia let out a sigh of relief, once Nepeta got a ship in her head she would do everything in her power to make it happen. 

The song flowed into a new one and Rose looked up startled. 

“I have to check something.” She said. 

“I’ll come with you.” Kanaya said near instantly after. 

“Terezi, I think this would be a good time for the first drinks of the evening! Aradia?” Nepeta tilted her head silently asking if she wanted to come along. As a response She lifted her hand and pointed to the stamp, Nepeta nodded and tugged Terezi in the direction of the bar. It took Aradia a second in the bright flashing lights to find Kanaya’s retreating form but she followed after. In a second or two she caught up and alerted them she was tagging along. 

Rose lead them to the dj’s booth and lo and behold there sat the younger Strider, wearing clunky headphones over his ever-present aviators. Upon seeing his half sister he pulled off the headphones and stepped out from behind the booth, letting the music continue. 

Rose smirked, “I thought I recognized this remix.” 

Dave returned a similar smirk, “You know too much sis.” 

“I thought you weren’t working tonight.” 

“Wasn’t. Regular dj couldn’t come. All the big clubs have my number, they called me up, needed some signature Strider sizzle.” 

“Of course they did.” Rose rolled her eyes. “So are you going to play anything decent tonight?” 

“Sorry, most people like things from this century Rose, none of your dark age ritual chants or whatever shit that is I used to hear from your room.” 

“Why, Dave, now you know too much.” 

“Was that a threat?” 

“Of course not.” 

He raised his eyebrows, “because that wouldn’t be you.” 

“Not at all.” 

“Oh yeah Lalonde, like I buy that for a second.” 

“Why, David, I’m hurt.” 

“Oh i’m sure, now I have a job to do so-” 

She cut him off, “hmm. Working that’s uncharacteristic for you. Maybe you're reacting in such a way because you really-” 

“Don’t you dare start psychoanalyzing me” 

“Oh I haven’t even started. How’s John?” 

He looked away. 

“That’s what I thought. You have to tell him.” 

“Yeah whatever.” He muttered moving back behind the booth and putting his headphones back on, distractedly switching songs again” 

The three girls walked back tords where they had been, Rose started laughing and Kanaya joined in. 

“It’s just too easy to get under his skin” Rose managed to get out through her laughter. 

“And its not like we all don’t know.” 

Aradia struggled to follow the conversation, she hadn’t spent that much time with the four new kids to their game at all. She shot a questioning glance at Kanaya. 

“Or maybe it’s just because we did the same thing.” Rose said. 

“That isn’t true, I had nowhere near that much trouble telling you!” 

“Didn’t you?” 

Kanaya blushed, “Well… I may have struggled a little.” 

“Or a lot.” 

“But it all worked out, didn’t it?” 

“Yes, it did.” Rose said softly. She leaned in to brush her lips against Kanaya’s before the other girl leaned down a bit to kiss her for real. 

Aradia looked away out of politeness, now she got it. So Dave liked John but hadn’t told him yet. Okay. She weaved through the crowd going in the direction of the bar, leaving Rose and Kanaya dancing close together. She hadn’t really been aware of their couple status but she didn’t want to be a third wheel and intrude on their moment. But hopefully she could find Terezi and Nepeta now. Unfortunately before she reached her destination Aradia was stopped by someone less friendly. 

“Hiiiiiiii there, Megido, heard you got dumped.” 

She spun around to see Vriska. She was in high waisted riveted jean shorts and a black tank top equally riveted. She was wearing her typical glasses and had on multiple leather cuff bracelets in black, white, and her favorite shade of blue. 

“Straight to the point, Serket. You never were very good at subtlety.” 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She frowned and snarled defensively. 

“Tavros wasn’t exactly the type who would be wooed by someone just being impulsive like that. You also weren’t good at reading people. Or making up your mind.” 

“Well why restrict myself. Everyone was lucky to have a piece of me” 

“Lucky isn’t the word I would use.” 

“Of course not. And what word would you use?” 

“Maybe the opposite. I’d say everyone was wronged by you in some way or another and later just tolerated you.” 

“Ah but it was more than that. They always came crawling back to me.” 

“Even you acknowledge the past tense of that.” 

“I meant come. They always come back to me.” She frowned deeper. 

“Do they though?” 

“Tavros has been spending an awful lot of time with that rage player from our session. And Kanaya has Rose. And i’ve been hearing things about John too.” 

“Why do you know so much about me and my many loves, Megido, jealous of them?” 

“As if.” 

“Oh I know how it is. Remember, I have all the irons in the fire. Allllllll of them!” 

“What does that even mean?” 

“It means your boyfriend cheated on you.” 

Aradia couldn’t help herself. She literally laughed. It was such a sloppy transition and such a messy attempt to upset her. Vriska looked taken aback. 

“Aren’t you supposed to be a sobbing mess right about now?” 

“If I laughed any harder there would be tears.” 

“I- errrrrrrr. I better go.” 

“Take care Vriska! Good to see you!” Aradia called after her retreating form. She had re-dyed the tips of her blond hair blue again. Aradia hadn’t been lying though. It had been good to see her. It just showed that some things never changed. Maybe she and Sol could be friends again. It was unlikely, but so was Vriska making her happy. So anything really was possible. 

Aradia finally made her way to the bar’s counter. Unsurprisingly there was neither cackle from Terezi nor giggle-squeal from Nepeta. In the time she had spent watching Dave and Rose bicker and talking to Vriska they had gone somewhere else. By now the club was more full. Rose and Kanaya had been right though, she knew she would have been a lot worse off coming to this chaos now. She sat in one of the bar stools and waited for the bartender to come over. 

“What can I get you.” 

“Can I get a virgin Strawberry Daiquiri?” 

“Absolutely.” 

“I’ll pay” A vaguely familiar voice cut in. 

Aradia looked over to see some guy in thick hipster frames with a purple stripe in his hair. Oh! The magician guy. But she didn’t really know him so... 

“That’s okay, I’ll pay for it myself.” She responded. 

“No I insist.” An irritated edge crept into his voice. 

“No I really must decline-” 

“Someone is paying, right?” The bartender asked, annoyed. 

“Yes.” She and the magician (his name was something with an E… Eric, perhaps) answered simultaneously. 

The man went off to make her drink and she looked over at the magician guy. 

“You really don’t have to pay.” 

“I want to anyway.” 

“So do you normally just go around buying girl’s drinks for them?” 

“More or less so.” 

Then he turned to face her directly. “Wait a second… Are you?” 

“Yeah.” 

“You didn’t let me finish, I could have been about to say Ke$ha.” 

“But you weren’t.” 

“Well, now you’ll never know.” 

The guy had a bit of a short temper. He kinda came off as a bit of a douche. There was an awkward moment of silence between the two of them in the loud club. 

“Look. I’m sorry. You’re the girl from the show aren’t you?” 

She sighed, “Yeah.” 

He nodded. 

“That wasn’t exactly my best moment.” 

“No, no of course not. Definitely a far cry from this.” He gestured to all of her. 

“Well, this isn’t exactly me either.” 

“Yeah?” 

“Kanaya finally got what she wanted and got to dress me all up.” 

“Yeah, she’s definitely very opinionated when it comes to people’s fashion. You know how many times she’s threatened me because of this?” He gestured at his purple streak. “She thinks it’s ridiculous. Luckily I can dress myself so she doesn’t give me much trouble about clothes.” 

He seemed to realize what he said, “Er, not that i’m sayin’ you can't dress yourself it’s just that-” 

She laughed and waved his apology off. “If you ask her she’d say I can’t dress myself. She takes offense personally to the fact I have like, two dresses or something.” 

He faked a gasp. “Two??? Oh the horror! What a crime! I ought to take you to a boutique right now!” 

Aradia giggled. It had been a while since she had done that. 

The bartender came back with her drink. Before she had even taken it out of his hands the magician threw enough money on the counter to cover it and a tip. She wondered offhand if he’d had it up his sleeve or if she was taking this magician thing too far. 

“Let’s go sit at a table.” 

She rolled her eyes but followed him anyway to the side of the room where there were a couple of tables. One was vacant and he continued to lead. They sat on opposite sides of the table. Aradia took a sip of her drink, it was sweet and definitely non alcoholic. 

“So, now that you’ve paid for my drink, how about a formal introduction.” 

“Formal? On a scale of one to ten how formal?” 

“Royal wedding formal.” 

“In that case-” He jumped up from the table and took a showy bow, grabbing her hand to press a kiss to the back of it. “Eridan Ampora of the Ampora family line, owners of the Ampora ship building company. Second born, but likely heir. Currently studying at Brown University to be a teacher of war and weapons history. Also magician Extraordinaire.” 

Aradia laughed again. He sat down again. 

“And you are?” 

“Aradia.” 

He laughed, “This wedding is seeming less classy each second.” 

“Ugh fine.” Aradia grumbled before getting to her feet and curtsying exaggeratedly. “Aradia Megido. Of no family with no business. Currently studying at Brown to be an archeologist.” 

“No family?” 

“I suppose I could say orphan extraordinaire.” 

“ah…” 

“Yeah.” She resumed sipping her drink. 

“But wait… If you’re an orphan, and i’m not doubtin’ you are, how do you pay for this. This is not a cheap school.” 

“Scholarship.” Aradia shrugged. 

“Full ride???” 

“Yeah.” 

“More like student extraordinaire, what did you do to get in here?” 

Aradia shrugged again. 

“You are certainly a character Ar.” 

“Ar?” She raised an eyebrow (and hoped it was as scary as when Rose did it). 

“Can I call you Ar?” 

“Well you already did.” 

“I… yeah.” 

“I, yeah is right.” 

“So should I not call you Ar?” 

“Oh, I don’t really care, but I don’t know where you get off adding nicknames ten minutes into our conversation.” 

“Wait what just happened?” 

“We were getting back to the fact that you said you sometimes just buy drinks for random girls.” 

“Were we?” He scratched the back of his neck at looked at her puzzled. 

“Yeah.” She took another drink from her glass. 

“Well, what can I say. It’s what I do.” 

“It’s kind of creepy if its a regular thing.” 

“A guy gets lonely Ar. You know how that is.” 

“Well i’m starting to get reaquainted with it.” 

He seems to put everything back in context. “You're right. It’s strange. Creepy. I just feel like I can talk to you, although that may just be because you’re the only one who’ll listen,” 

“Eridan, It’s been like twenty minutes.” 

“I know, pathetic, right?” 

“Yeah, kind of.” 

“Wow thanks Ar, aren’t you supposed to say ‘No Eridan, that isn’t pathetic, you're just human like the rest of us. I feel like I can talk to you too~’. Isn’t that how it goes?” 

“Where did you even get an idea like that?” 

“Sometimes I give in when Kar begs everyone and anyone to see the latest romcom with him.” 

“Oh god, Sollux told me about his taste in movies. You gave into that?” 

“Yeah.” 

“No wonder you’re here playing the sorry sap waiting for love to waltz into a nightclub. That isn’t how things happen in real life.” 

“Well aren’t you the authority on the matter. You can't even keep a guy happy.” 

As soon as he said it Eridan threw his hand over his mouth as if he could take it back. His eyes looked like a mix between scared and sorry behind his glasses. He pulled his hand away from his mouth. “Look Ar-” 

Aradia slapped him. Already a red-ish hand print was showing up on his cheek. 

“I deserved that.” 

“Yes you did.” 

She grabbed the strawberry of the rim of her glass and stormed away, biting into it violently. 

“Ar, Wait.” 

She didn’t. Why could anyone get under her skin like that right now? Especially a stranger. Vriska's words hadn't hurt her at all. But maybe it was the fact that an entirely random stranger knew. She knew she shouldn’t have let him buy her the drink or talk to her. She was just too vulnerable and she hated it. She found her group of friends (and Vriska) all over by the dj booth. Probably harassing Dave whenever he could take a break and just let a song play through. She considered asking Kanaya to take her home, but everyone was having so much fun dancing. So she just threw herself into it with the rest of them and danced late into the night. Letting go was risky for sure, Aradia knew. But also fun.


	8. Boring stuff, same old routines, and more coincidences

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> school. work. hipsters.

Aradia groaned loudly as her alarm went off. It was eight thirty. They had been out till about three in the morning and it had been three thirty before Kanaya got her back to her apartment. She had gone to sleep shortly after that. So she got about five hours of sleep. Yawning, she speculated that it could be worse. Aradia stumbled groggily to the bathroom. After she used the toilet she washed her hands and dared to look in the mirror. Oh god. Kanaya would kill her. She had forgotten to scrub her makeup off and had slept in it. Kanaya had also been damnably right, her lipstick was still as vibrant as last night and hadn’t smudged. Aradia grabbed her towel from the floor where she had kicked it into the corner after Kanaya used it to spray her hair black. Oh right. That was still in her hair too. Okay she needed to shower for sure. And right now. Aradia looked under the bathroom cabinet, crossing her fingers. Oh thank god, there was another towel here. She hung it on the hook and quickly undressed. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

After her shower Aradia was feeling more awake and that was a blessing. She glanced at her bedroom clock: it was nine fifteen. Okay. she still had time. Aradia had to be to her class at ten. In the shower the black dye ran down the drain near immediately, like Kanaya had said it would. Then Aradia had scrubbed at her eyes and lips in a hope to remove the makeup. Once she got out she checked a mirror to see that she had been on the most part successful. It was good enough anyway. She patted herself dry with her towel and left her hair to air dry. She slipped into a pair of boyshort underwear and and her everyday bra before grabbing a pair of slate colored jeans and pulling them on. It was supposed to be warm today so she pulled on a burgundy tank top and a purple fitted tee shirt. She dug through the medium sized box she had for shoes and found a pair of brown leather shoe boot things. She yanked on a pair of ankle socks and sat on her bed to lace the boots up. As she did her phone chirped from the bedside table beside her. Aradia snatched it up. On it, a reminder she had written for herself was now flashing. It was a reminder that class was in the larger group classroom today as the ancient history and the history of war class would be working together for something. The clock on her phone read nine twenty five. Aradia knew she ought to hurry. She stuffed her phone in her pocket and walked quickly into the kitchen, bringing her laptop case with her so she wouldn’t have to make a trip back to her room. She grabbed her box of fruit loops from a kitchen cabinet, wincing as she saw Sollux’s honey comb cereal next to it. She poured herself a bowl and topped it off with milk, noticing the near empty state of the gallon jug. Aradia ate slowly, mentally steeling herself for the day. Things were going back to normal, for most people they were entirely normal. For everyone else nothing else had changed. And nothing had changed about her being the creepy introverted girl who liked sitting in the back corner. Aradia left her bowl in the sink and filled it with water but didn’t bother washing it now. She brushed her teeth in the bathroom and grabbed her backpack. She slipped her laptop, case and all, into it and double checked her wallet and keys were there too. They were. 

As she made her way out the door another glance at her phone told her it was nine forty. She should make it on time. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Aradia was right about being on time. But she was wrong about it being warm today. It was chilly and she knew right away that she should have grabbed a sweatshirt but wouldn’t risk being late to class so she just tried to hurry. She made her way into the large classroom still feeling cold. While there was no wind, the room was hardly warmer than the outdoors. It seemed that it was chilly, but not cold enough for the school to turn on the heat. She really wished she had gone back for that sweatshirt but at least she made it. And with five minutes to spare. Aradia took her normal seat in the back of the class. Not too far that she couldn’t hear, but far enough that people would know she wasn’t to be approached. She sat her backpack on the floor and pulled up the desk platform that was attached to the chair. She pulled out her laptop and after connecting to the campus wifi opened up google drive. Aradia opened a new google doc to take notes on. Up in the front of the room her professor cleared his throat. Aradia peered intently at the front. At the podium was her normal professor and standing next to him was a man she assumed was the war history teacher. They took turns speaking, apparently each member of her class would pair up or be in a group of three with someone from the other class. They would have to research some form of ancient battle or strategy and make a presentation about it to be shared with the class later. It would need to be accompanied by a write up on it and they would need to share their presentation with the two classes and essentially teach it. The project itself wouldn’t be too terribly hard. Finding a partner might be. Students had by now been dismissed to find a partner or partners. Aradia sat there quietly near the back peering around considering her options. She was still cold and goose bumps pricked up along her arms. She shivered as she continued her looking for anyone she knew even a little bit. Out of nowhere a cloth of some sort dropped around her shoulders. She looked down to see a burgundy zipper hoodie draped over her shoulders. She turned her head and looked over her shoulder to see none other than Eridan Ampora. 

“Hey, Ar. Thought you looked cold.” He was already wearing a long sleeved black and gray sweater and had had the sweatshirt over it. Well, even though he was a forward person, and more than a tad presumptuous she was in fact cold. 

“Thank you, I was.” Aradia pulled it on now, actually putting her arms through the sleeves. It was huge on her and she pulled it tight around herself overlapping it before deciding to just let it hang like it would.. As she adjusted it she noticed it smelled strangely nice, a thought she immediately pushed out of her head. Eridan nodded at her. 

“So, are we workin’ together?” Eridan asked in his strange wavery accent. 

“I guess so.” It wasn’t like Aradia knew anyone else there. Even if he was kind of a prick, or at least seemed like one so far. As if he could hear her thoughts he looked at her in almost a meek manor. 

“Hey Ar, I’m uh, sorry. For what I said. I was out of line. I talked to Fef about it. She looked ready to slap me too. And she said she agrees with you that i was bein’ a real glubbin’ jerk.” 

“Apology accepted.” 

“So. When do we want to start workin’ on this project?” 

“I don’t really care. I don’t do much besides school and work.” 

“Where do you work?” 

“Just on campus library.” 

“That’s great. When do you have your next shift?” 

“Uh… Today after this.” 

“Like right after?” 

“Yeah…” 

“Perfect.” 

“Why?” 

“I’ll walk you there and then start researching right away and you can help and pop over every now and again.” 

“Oh. Okay. We don’t have to start right away you know. We have time before it’s due.” 

“But this is a rather great opportunity” 

“I guess.” 

Not long after that class was dismissed. Aradia and Eridan walked to the library and Aradia clipped on her name tag and quickly set to work. Conveniently enough when Eridan strolled up to the desk and asked for help to find something, the other worker Jane asked Aradia to do it. Aradia knew Jane was another life player who would join their game soon. At least she assumed it was her. There weren’t too many Janes at the school that she knew of and she had seen this Jane hanging with a blonde who was suspiciously similar to dave except with these terrible pointy shades. 

Aradia walked Eridan to the ancient history section. She spent enough time there for her own homework assignments that she felt she could likely find it blindfolded. They quickly found a book titled ‘War of the Egyptians’ that looked promising with another one next to it titled ‘War of the Greeks’ It was clearly from the same author and looked full of good information. Eridan got both of them, he would skim them before they decided which one to choose. 

“I mean even though I know all a’ this information already.” 

Aradia rolled her eyes. “I’m sure you do.” 

“I mean it’s just because we need the citations.” 

“Well either way it’s a good way you got them right away. I see things like this all the time, but right now, directly after it was assigned, even the frantic-need-to-finish-now people haven’t got here yet.” 

“Well there’s a reason I had the idea.” 

“Fine. Well I better get back to the main desk. You gonna stay at this table here?” 

“That’s the plan.” 

“Then I’ll pop over every so often.” 

“What time does your shift end?” 

“Uh. Two.” 

“Okay cool.” 

“It’s like three hours Eridan, you don’t have to stay here that long so we can work together. It doesn’t have to be now.” 

“I know. I was thinking we could grab a bite to eat afterwards.” 

“No thanks.” 

“Oh come on you totally should.” 

“I’m busy later.” 

Eridan shot her a skeptical glance. 

“I am.” 

“Yeah sure you are. An’ I’m the Archduke Franz Ferdinand.” 

“Hmm. If I were you i’d avoid parades then.” 

He looked at her in a way that could only be taken as ‘seriously?’. 

“We could just go grab some smoothies or something.” 

“I have work to do now Eridan.” Aradia said walking back to the reference desk. 

“We’ll talk about it later then.” 

Aradia continued work as normal helping students find whatever they needed. She did what she said she would and stopped over to see what Eridan was up to every so often. He seemed to be leaning in the favor of doing the paper on the ancient Greek battle techniques. That suited her just fine. Soon enough her shift was over and she pulled off her name tag (the last thing she needed was another student asking her to pull out half the books in the section for them). Aradia walked over to where Eridan was. He sat slouched over the book where it lay on the table and gravity seemed to be slowly pulling his glasses off his face. She sat down in there chair next to him. 

“Find anything interesting?” 

He looked up slightly startled. 

“Sorry.” 

“Nah. I was thinkin’ about naval warfare. Ya know with ships bein’ the family business an’ all.” 

“Well that could work.” 

“Alright. We’ll do that then.” 

“Okay.” 

“So how about that food now.” 

“Eridan I don’t want to. I told you so.” 

He pouted for a second. 

“C’mon, Ar. Fef is always hangin’ around with the weird 3-D guy and I have no one to talk to.” 

Always. It had been less than a week since she and Sollux had broken up. Well then. Aradia absently wondered if he had cheated on her more extensively than she had thought. She immediately pushed that thought out of her mind. Nopenopenope no way she was thinking about that. 

“Really Eridan. Just not today. Okay?” 

“I’ll hold you to that.” 

“Fine.” 

Aradia stood to go and Eridan rose as well. 

“So you don’t need this?” Aradia picked up the book on Egyptian warfare. Eridan shook his head. 

“Okay. Then i’ll take it back and check it in right away.” 

“Okay. I think I’m heading out now too anyway.” Eridan grabbed his stuff and followed Aradia up to the desk. She put the book into the return slot and quickly ducked into the back office to get her backpack. She slung it over her shoulder and walked to the exit; Eridan fell into step with her. Once outside there was an awkward moment when Aradia turned in the direction of the park and Eridan turned towards the student parking lot. 

“Uh, Ar. Going the wrong way?” 

“Nope.” 

“How do you get home?” 

“Walk.” 

“Oh.” 

“Yeah. Through the park.” 

“Oh. The one where I…” 

“Put on your show. Yeah. Are you embarrassed about that Eridan?” 

“It’s a little weird. Like I don’t even believe in magic anyway.” 

“I don’t think you're supposed to mention that. And also duh, you know how the tricks work of course you aren’t going to think they’re real. And for the record I don’t either.” 

“Trust me I already know you don’t. Hmm you're right. At least I know how the tricks work. Of course even if I didn’t know the tricks i’d be able to figure them out. “ 

“Eridan.” 

“What?” 

“You’re being a prick again.” 

“Oh. Right. Sorry.” 

“No you aren’t.” 

“Nah.” 

Aradia laughed. “I really do have to go though.” 

“No you don’t.” 

“Nah,” Aradia said, quoting him from a minute ago. 

Now Eridan laughed too. 

“Well I want to catch up on some shows and go on tumblr for a while.” 

“You have a tumblr?” 

“Yup.” 

“Me too.” 

“Nuh- uh.” Aradia looked at him in disbelief. 

“Yup.” 

“What’s your url?” 

“same as my pesterchum: caligulasAquarium.” 

“Dude, I stuck with my chumhandle too. apocalypseArisen” 

“Dude?” 

“Shut up.” 

He snickered. “Dude.” 

“I’m leaving.” Aradia turned away from him back so she was facing the park. He was still laughing when he said, “Yeah whatever. See you later Ar.” 

. 

. 

It wasn’t until she was home when she realized she was still wearing his sweatshirt.


	9. Tumblr, Movies, and Relaxation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took forever and thanks for sticking with it!

He.  
Had.  
A.  
Hipster.  
Blog.  


Once Aradia had stopped laughing at the first three posts she saw (and god did it take a while to stop) she took a deep breath and tried to keep scrolling with a straight face. Tried is the key word. There was literally everything she would expect of a hipster blog. Black and white photos, universe photos, tons of people’s selfies (flowercrowns galore), freaking pictures of peoples’ Starbucks, people wearing band merch for bands she’d never even heard of (but that was the point wasn’t it?), text posts galore. And then she found it. A selfie. A picture of none other than Eridan Ampora himself wearing a freaking purple beanie and a purple, black, and gray plaid shirt. Aradia decided she was dead. This was just too much. She looked back at the picture. He was looking dramatically out of frame with the slightest smirk on his lips. There was literally no way he’d taken that picture. Aradia laughingly wondered who he’d asked to help him take his hipster photo. For god’s sake it was just… So hipster. She started to wonder if that was right, really, what are hipsters? Aradia hit ctrl T and opened a new tab. She googled ‘hipster guy with beanie’. And the laughing started again. Nearly every picture was some guy wearing either sunglasses or frames like Eridan’s and not looking at the camera. And more than one was wearing plaid too. She closed that tab and for the third time looked at the photo. Aradia half wondered if he’d gotten the stripe in his hair to match the beanie or had bought the beanie to match the stripe. Actually that was a good question. She scrolled back to the top of his blog and sent him an ask with that exact question. After that she shook her head, followed him, and clicked back to her dash. 

Oh! She had an ask. She clicked the little envelope icon and waited for it to load. ‘caligulasAquarium asked: Ar, wwhy are there drawn pictures a guys wwith eyes on their foreheads an floatin cats an these same couple a guys in a bunch a things an gifs an what evven is all a this?’ 

Aradia rolled her eyes. Clearly he too had gone home and started stalking her blog as she had his. And he actually typed out the way he spoke. (Not that Aradia was one to talk as she switched out her ’o’s for ‘0’s) Aradia tapped out a quick response ‘fand0ms. c0me 0n eridan get with it.’ She sent her response and then clicked back to her dash and continued her blogging. Eridan had definitely exaggerated his confusion over her blog. Her posts weren’t even all fandom. There was a lot of humor too. (Although it was tumblr humor so it tended to either be morbid, sacrilegious, or just strange) She blogged for a while longer and was miles down her dash when she realized he’d probably answered her question. She clicked the back to top button and went to followers. Eridan was the newest and she clicked into his blog. It didn’t take her long to find ‘caligulasAquarium answered: wwhat? they match? i didn’t evven notice.’ Oh sure he didn’t. Aradia didn’t buy into that for a second. She pulled up a fan mail to send him and typed out ‘0h really. y0u didnt n0tice. 0kay sure. we b0th kn0w 0ne came bef0re the 0ther. which 0ne was it eridan?’ She was determined to find this out because there was no way she was letting such a mockable opportunity pass her by. 

Since Aradia had virtually no plans ever and this evening wasn’t any different she decided to watch a movie. She went over to her vhs tapes and pulled out one she hadn’t seen in a while. ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’. She had forgotten to rewind it last time and so she set the player to rewind and went back to her laptop to see if Eridan had replied. He hadn’t. She took her laptop to her room to charge and shut it. She would just check later. When she returned to the living room she heard the click sound that meant the tape had rewound all the way to the beginning. She didn’t hit play yet though. She still needed to figure something out for dinner. Screw it she would just get another pizza. She could afford a 7$ medium cheese pizza. Aradia pulled her phone from her pocket and walked to the kitchen where there was a magnet from the pizza shop with the phone number on it on the fridge. She waited for the phone to be answered and when it was she heard a loud female voice. 

“Hey! What can I get you?” 

“Uh, i’ll take a medium cheese.” 

“Rad! Anything else? Breadsticks?” 

“No thanks, just the pizza.” 

“Okay thank you. Tuna, go get a medium cheese please!” 

The call disconnected. She knew it would be 20 minutes or so before the pizza got there and went back to her room. First Aradia grabbed 10$ from her wallet that she knew would cover the pizza and tucked it into her pocket. Then she opened her laptop again and went back to tumblr. Eridan had replied with ‘it wwas just a really great coincidence.’ So she shot back a ‘which was it. the hat 0r the hair.’ She didn’t really expect a response right away and was surprised when she got a message back near immediately. ‘im not tellin.’ ‘fine then. d0nt.’ Just then there was a knock at her door. The pizza was here! She shut her computer and opened the door to the same pizza boy she had at the last movie night. 

“Jake!” 

“Aradia!” 

She took the pizza from him and set it on the table. “It’s good to see you again.” 

“I fully agree. Another movie night?” 

She nodded. 

“Hey was that fellow from the elevator I passed last time coming here for you? Tall fellow? 3D glasses?” 

“Yeah. He was.” 

“I thought so. So where is the chap?” 

“Uh. Things kind of went south since then.” 

“Oh.” Jake looked away sort of awkwardly. “But you can’t have a movie night alone. It’s an unsaid rule!” 

Aradia half shrugged. “I don’t mind it.” 

Jake just shook his head. “Nope I’m sorry I simply can’t allow such malarkey to be spoke. You can’t have a movie night alone. I’m afraid I must insist on joining you.” 

“Jake you have to get back to work.” 

“Not so. My shift was over. I said I’d take the money in next shift. I drove this here with my car. I’m a free man! Any other concerns?” 

“I guess I have no other objections.” 

“Capitol! So what are we watching?” 

“Monty Python and the Holy Grail?” 

“Perfect!” 

“I thought so too.” She gestured to the box of pizza on her little table. “You hungry?” 

“May I?” 

“Go ahead.” 

The two of them got their pizza and hit play before settling on the couch. The movie started after a few commercials and they laughed at the familiar yet still funny jokes. The jokes and set up of everything was just so absurd but nearly everyone had seen it and it was a definite classic. Aradia looked over one time and saw Jake mouthing all the words in time with the actors. She swatted at his arm and called him a dork which only led him to saying the lines out loud. Which meant Aradia had to naturally respond with the next line. Not that she knew the whole thing or anything. (yes she did) By the time it had ended (with nothing resolved) it was around 8 and Aradia was leaning heavily against Jake. 

“Thanks, Jake.” 

“It was my pleasure.” 

“You have a good taste in movies.” 

“I could say the same thing. You picked it after all.” 

“You know every word of it.” 

“So do you!” Jake poked her side. 

“Oh yeah.” Aradia smiled sheepishly at him. 

“Well I ought to go.” 

“Yeah, sorry I stole your evening.” 

“It’s fine. I prolly would have just hung out with Dirk or something. A new female friend is just what I need. It’s good to have him a bit jealous.” Jake let out a loud laugh “Maybe he’ll worry i’m going straight on him.” 

Aradia laughed. “Oh please, he’s a Strider. There is no way I could compete with a _Strider_ for a guy. I hardly provide a challenge to beat.” 

“Don’t count yourself out so quick ’radia. We do have similar movie tastes and Strider is always complaining about my cinematic preferences.” 

“But at least he stays through the movies.” 

“That, Madame, is very true.” 

“Do you have class tomorrow?” 

“Yes in fact I do.” 

“Then maybe you should go.” 

“Good gravy! Trying to kick me out already?” 

Aradia laughed. “Of course not, I just can't be the one responsible for you losing sleep and failing your class.” 

" ‘Radia it’s like eight at night.” 

“Yes and you’ll have a jealous boyfriend to answer to and probably homework to do.” 

“I guess you have a point.” 

“We can do this again soon, right?” 

“Absolutely.” 

“Good.” 

Aradia walked him to the ground floor and went back to her apartment. She changed for bed. She turned out her lights and got into bed, pulling her laptop into her lap. She opened up tumblr and was surprised to see the red icon above the inbox icon telling her she had five messages. She clicked in. Each one was from Eridan. In the order they were sent they went like this:  
‘good there wwasnt anythin to tell you anywway’  
‘let me guess you dont believve me’  
‘cmon ar dont ignore me’  
‘i honestly didnt realize they matched. okay honestly wwho are you to not believve me’  
‘the hair wwas first’  


Aradia smiled. She had figured as much. She looked over at his sweatshirt which was hanging over the back of her chair. She’d return it to him the next time they worked together. He’d probably insist on making that soon. He seemed like that, like some jerk who would insist upon them working when he wanted. But he tried to be nice. Sort of. Aradia decided she’d wait before she judged him one way or another.


	10. More Encounters with the Magician and a Kidnapping (a breakfast non-date)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (oh god i'm such trash. It's been like a month. sorry sorry sorry. if you guys want you can see if my charming personality will make it up to you at all. Seriously, message me at aprilletherainbowcat.tumblr.com, i'd love to talk to you guys.)

A few days later on Saturday morning Aradia was awakened rudely by pounding on her door. She pulled her oversized sleepshirt down to where it fell, a couple of inches above her knees and rubbed sleepydust out of her eyes as she plodded groggily to her door. She was still trying to blink herself awake as she flung the door open wide and called lazily to the person standing there. 

“whatchu need?” 

“Wow Ar, this is a different look for you. I must say that I like this better than both down dressing loser and scary punk girl. ” 

That stupid accent woke her up quick. 

“Eridan?” 

“The one and only.” 

“What are you doing here? Wait, did you insult how I normally dress? No, wait, first off how do you know where I live?” 

“Well I figured since you don’t have anything-” 

“I do have something. I have work Saturdays Eridan.” She glared at him. 

“Oh.” 

“Yeah.” 

“When does that start?” 

“At ten in the morning. What time even is it?” 

“It’s seven.” 

Aradia groaned and slumped against her doorframe. “Seven. Ugh. I could have slept for two whole more hours Eridan. Two. Hours. Do you know how long that is? 120 minutes.” 

“Well, it would seem that someone isn’t a morning person.” 

“And I guess you are?” 

“Not really.” 

“Then why the hell are you standing on my doorstep at like five in the morning?” 

“It’s seven, Ar. Seeeevvveeennn. That’s two hours away from five.” 

“Just like the two hours you stole from me.” 

“Well how about I make it up to you?” 

“Too late. I’m already awake. There is no getting back to sleep for me.” 

“That wasn’t what I was suggesting by a long shot.” 

“And what were you suggesting?” 

“That we could go grab breakfast and talk about the project or whatever.” 

“Yeah, but really, how smart is that?” 

“What do you mean?” 

“Well… You still haven’t answered how you learned my address… How am I to know that this isn’t a kidnapping plot?” 

“seriously, Ar? You really think that?” 

“It’s a possibility, and it is possible enough for me to be concerned.” 

“For fuck’s sake Ar I begged the information from Kanaya.” 

“And she gave it to you?” 

“ _No. No she didn’t. I asked her. She said no. And now i’m here._ ” 

“okay okay fine, lay off the sarcasm will you? I just don’t know why Kanaya would give my address out to someone.” 

“So are we gonna go or what?” 

“Like this?” Aradia gestured at her bare legs. 

“Well, I wouldn’t call it a problem per se.” 

Aradia glared at him until he laughed and waved her off. 

“Was just a joke, Ar.” 

“Was the Kanaya bit a joke too, cause I don’t think she’d give my address to such a perv.” 

“Hey! Where does someone like you get off sayin’ that to someone like me?” 

Aradia shut the door and slipped the deadbolt across as a reply. 

“Arrrrrrrr!” 

She walked back to her bedroom, leaving the irritating (and irritated) hipster pounding at the door. Aradia quickly slipped into a pair of gray jeans, black converse, and a plain black long sleeved tee shirt. On second thought she blindly grabbed a sweatshirt from her desk chair and tugged it on. It was strangely large. She wondered if she had washed it wrong somehow causing it to grow rather than shrink and headed to the door. The pounding had stopped by then. Aradia took this as a blessing, she wanted to go out anyway. Now that she had time she could go to the library early and maybe find a good book for the project before her shift. She slipped the things she would need into a black drawstring bag and threw it over her left shoulder, grasping her keys in her right hand. She shut her door behind her and locked it before dropping her keys into her bag. Aradia started walking in the direction of the stairs and was instantly aware when someone fell into step beside her. 

“So Ar, where do you want to go for breakfast?” 

Aradia sighed. Of course it was too complicated for him to take a hint and leave her alone. 

“I don’t care. You can choose.” 

“Oh sweet, for a sec there I thought you were gonna fight me on this again.” 

“Why bother? It really doesn’t matter either way.” 

“Well thats not normally what I want to hear from a girl i’m taking out.” 

“Eridan, you said this was about the project. This isn’t a date.” 

“Well, why can’t it be both?” He smirked at her as the reached the top of the stairs. 

“Eridan this isn’t a taco commercial and I’m not the El Paso taco shell girl and we can’t just have both.” 

He slouches slightly as they start descending the stairs. Aradia frowns, he was a pain but she didn’t mean to antagonize him. She almost started to say something in the way of an apology but then he muttered, “How the hell did you even say that with a straight face?” 

“Apathy.” 

“Wow, Ar, that hurts.” 

“I don’t think you understand the meaning of apathy.” 

“Shut up miss vocabulary.” 

“Name calling Eridan. _How unexpected_.” 

“Was that sarcasm?” 

“ _No._ ” 

“Definitely sarcasm. Ya know how am I even ‘sposed to know this isn’t a date, you’re wearin’ my hoodie anyway.” 

Oh. Aradia suddenly remembered that she had left the library last week with his sweatshirt and neglected to return it. “I didn’t even realize. Here you can have it back.” She started taking it off. 

“Nah don’t bother, it suits you.” 

They reached the bottom of the stairs and crossed the lobby to exit. Once outside Aradia mentally celebrated keeping the jacket because it was getting increasingly chilly. Eridan gently grasped Aradia’s elbow and steered her left towards a side street. She almost rolled her eyes at the proper way he led her, it seemed like something that would come from some heir of an elitist family in the old days, back when you had to court a girl with a chaperone and everything. She briefly allowed her inner romantic to sigh at the thought of ballgowns and a gothic style romance, all dark castles and glittering chandeliers. 

“What are you thinkin’ of?” Eridan interrupted her thoughts. 

“Chandeliers.” 

He shot a glance at her from the corner of his eye and tried to tell if she was messing with him. Deciding she wasn’t he made a quiet inquisitive sound. 

“Chandeliers, like the old fashioned ones with ornate crystals that would have taken ages to clean.” 

“Like the one in Phantom of the Opera?” 

“Yeah! Wait… You’ve seen Phantom?” 

“No.” 

She looked over at him and raised an eyebrow. “But you know about the chandelier?” 

“Well I saw part of it.” 

“How much?” 

He shrugged. Aradia hadn’t been paying much attention to where he was leading her, but now as they stopped she looked around before her gaze settled on the car in front of her. 

“No fucking way.” 

“What?” He said defensively. 

His car was purple. It was a corvette, top down, and it was fucking purple. 

“Nice, huh?” 

“Eridan it’s a purple car. It’s purpl- oh my god it matches your hair oh my god are you an Evans twin?” Aradia laughed. 

“Am I a what?” 

"Have you _never_ seen High School Musical?" 

"Oh. Those Evans twins." 

"Who else?" 

"Why would you even make that connection?" 

“You color coordinated your hair and your car.” 

“It’s a coincidence. I swear.” 

“Like the beanie?” 

“Yes! I mean no! No.” 

“You seem conflicted.” 

“Shut up. It’s my favorite color, okay? The color of royalty.” He finished with an intentionally haughty tone of voice. 

“Calm down there your highness.” 

He glared at her for a second before opening the passenger side door her. 

“Wow Eridan, should someone of your _status_ be holding a door for someone like me?” 

“Oh knock it off, Ar.” 

She got into the car before looking up at him making her eyes exaggeratedly amazed. “Wow, how entirely generous of you to allow a commoner such as myself to ride in the royal carriage.” 

“I made _one_ comment.” 

“Eridan, as soon as you bring the word ‘royalty’ into it, it is entirely out of your hands. 

He walked around the car and got into the driver’s seat. He turned the key and sunk back in his seat contented as the engine roared to life before quieting into a soft purr. Aradia relented with the royalty stuff, and decided to poke fun at him for something else. 

“So when did you first see Phantom?” 

“A couple a yea- I never even saw it, Ar! I told you that.” 

“You’ve already lost, Eridan.” 

He sighed as he pulled the purple car into the street and started driving away from the school. Not that Aradia was that concerned, none of the restaurants on campus seemed like his sort of place. Her hair was assaulted by the wind and she struggled to pull the wild curls back with a hair elastic. After it was relatively secured she went back to the more important task of getting Eridan to spill it about his relationship with the musical Phantom of the Opera. 

“So how many years was it?” 

“Like five years or somefin.” 

Aradia observed, but didn’t comment on, the way he slipped in a fish pun as he kept his eyes nervously focussed on the road. 

“And you just decided to watch it?”’ 

The tension seemed to slip away and relief colored his voice as he replied, “A course not. Fef made me watch it durin’ one a our movie nights.” 

“And did you like it?” 

“No.” His response came too quick to be genuine and Aradia laughed softly. He continued, voice shining with that familiar arrogance that Aradia thought may just be a defense mechanism, “But anyway, back to the point: What is with you and chandeliers?” 

Aradia paused thoughtfully. “It’s not me and chandeliers per se, more like me and the time period they would have been relevant. It’s stupid; don't worry about it.” 

“You’re probably right about it being stupid, but tell me anyway.” 

Aradia rolled her eyes. “I know i’m studying ancient civilizations, but if I could live anywhere throughout history i’d pick victorian England. I absolutely romanticize debutante balls. It’s almost embarrassing, I don’t even like dresses, and the notion of having to stand there throughout the entire party to receive bouquets is almost nauseating but it almost feels like a dream.” 

“Ar, I have no fuckin’ clue what you’re talkin’ about. Bouquets?” 

“So Mr. Genius has no clue about debutante balls, does he?” 

“ Fuck off, Ar.” 

“In the first place, the balls are thrown for young girls, from aristocratic families when they come to an age where they can be courted and married off. At the party, the girl or girls, because sometimes the balls are shared, stand in their evening dresses and receive bouquets. The bouquets come from all sorts of people: family, close family friends, potential suitors, and possible her father’s business associates.” 

“So… ?” 

“I’ve always kind of wished I was from a time where I could have one. I mean obviously I wouldn’t have been able to, as a poor orphan girl. Actually knowing my luck I would have been snatched up on a witch hunt. But since it’s so unrealistic, why not dream? I mean I’m okay. And I don’t like dresses anyway.” 

Eridan glances over at her slyly, “Not even a full, billowin’, gem encrusted ruby hued ballgown? The type with a lacin’ corset top. Black tulle emergin’ from the bottom. The type that you can just see and feel it was made for you. The type that would drag all the eyes in the room to you, regardless of whom the suitors are ‘sposed to be for. Not even that type of dress?” 

Aradia had to give credit where credit was due. He had definitely listened and somehow how she felt had gotten through that thick skull of his. 

“You know I would like a dress like that. That wasn’t even a question.” 

“But, Ar, You don’t like dresses.” He said, mock-serious. 

“Oh Shut up, Ampora.” 

“That stings, Ar.” 

“Good. Now where are you taking me, anyways?” 

“Calm down, it’s just ahead here.” 

He wasn’t lying. Within two minutes he pulled the gaudy purple corvette into the parking lot of a small diner. The car seemed entirely out of place in front of the slightly run down diner. Then again, so did the hipster in the purple button down (and matching vans of course). Aradia pushed the door open; with a small exasperated sigh she took Eridan’s hand and allowed him to help her out of the close-to-the-ground car. Once she was out of the car, Eridan reached around Aradia to push the door shut, still not releasing her hand. He clicked the lock button on the keys, Aradia was curious as to what he thought that would do if someone knew how to hotwire a car. Then he clicked another button and the top of the car started to close automatically. Oh. Right. 

He dropped his keys into his pocket, still not having relinquished his hold on Aradia’s hand. His hand was smooth, almost humorously so, and had no callouses. It was entirely different than holding hands with Sollux, whose hands were rough from messing around with electronics in his free time, and crisscrossed with small scars from too-sharp metal parts. But Eridan’s hand had none of those, he probably moisturized, Aradia mused. But regardless of how soft and warm his hand was, she had to set him straight. “Not a date.” 

“You said that already.” 

“It’s still true.” 

“I know.” 

“Then what’s with this?” Aradia smirked at him. 

“Friends can hold hands if they want. And we’re friends.” 

Aradia realized with a jolt that he was right about them being friends. She hadn’t really thought about it, but she did actually consider him a friend. A pain in the ass of one, but still a friend. And she needed more of those. 

“Okay.” 

“Okay?” 

She swung their hands, “Okay.” 

“Okay, this is starting to get like TFIOS.” 

“TFIOS?” 

“ The Fault In Our Stars.” 

“You read that?” 

“You didn’t?” 

“No, I did. But it wasn’t _that_ good. I mean it was okay. But not fantastic.” 

“It was pretty good.” 

Eridan pushed open the door with his free hand and a bell jingled happily overhead. Aradia trailed after him, their hands still intertwined. Aradia didn’t really care much about the hand holding. It was a little strange, but as long as he understood that this wasn’t a date then she guessed it would be fine. It made him happy anyway, and she had to admit the easy, thoughtless contact was nice. He pulled her over to a small booth and they sat opposite each other. Eridan was now forced to drop her hand. 

“So, is there any particular reason i’ve been dragged out here?” 

“Breakfast.” 

“Eridan, you showed up on my doorstep at three in-” 

“Three? It was seven. _Seven_ , Ar. It wasn’t even that early.” 

“Shoosh, you. But anyway, you wake me up and totally harass me and yet somehow I end up here with you.” 

“Well, we have a project to work on, and speakin’ a work, you have to work.” 

“And where does breakfast fit into that?” 

“This place has surprisingly good pancakes for being such a dump.” 

They both looked up, startled, at the sound of someone angrily clearing their throat. Oh. Their waitress was here. Eridan didn’t even have the decency to look embarrassed. Aradia on the other hand frowned deeply at him before giving the waitress an apologetic smile. Stupid fucking hipster. 

“So. Can I help you?” The waitress’s words were clipped short, and it was clear that not all was forgiven. 

“Yes. We’ll take two orders a’ the pumpkin spice pancakes an’ two ojs an’ two orders a’ the home fries an’ one plate a’ bacon. That will be all.” Shooting another little glare at Eridan the waitress stormed off. 

“Did you just order for me?” 

“Uh.” 

“Without even asking?” 

“Yes?” 

“ … seriously?” 

“Hey, I know what’s good here. I’ve been here quite a bit. An’ the pumpkin spice pancakes are to die for, and they’re only seasonal so you have to try them before they’re gone for the year.” 

“The point isn’t about whether or not I would have gotten the pancakes. The point was that you took away my power to choose. That’s really a dick move, Eridan.” 

“Can I make it up to you?” 

“Whatever you’re about to suggest, don’t do that. Okay. Somehow your way of making things better might just end up backfiring.” 

The carefree easy mood was entirely killed and the two college students eyed each other in the silence. Aradia finally broke it, but spoke in a hollow tone. 

“So for the project I was thinking that we could…” She continued to outline in great detail what she thought was the best way to do the project. He only contributed to agree or occasionally add on to an idea. They were still talking business when their food arrived. Once the waitress left again (not even bothering to ask if everything was fine with the food) Eridan tried to set things back on a somewhat normal track. 

“So, you wanna know the secret of the pumpkin spice pancakes?” 

“What?” 

“You don’t use syrup. Because they give you this.” 

He picked up a small covered bowl that was nestled behind the napkin dispenser on the table and pulled off the lid, gesturing as if he was doing one of his magic tricks. Aradia peered into the bowl. 

“What is it?” Aradia asked, curiosity being the first emotion she’d shown for almost the entire conversation since they’d gotten there. 

“Icin’.” 

“Icing?” 

Eridan nodded solemnly. “Cream cheese based heaven.” He picked up a butter knife from the table and smeared a generous amount to the top pancake before lifting it to spread more in between each pancake. Aradia followed suit. 

“Now. We wait.” 

“Why?” 

“Cause the heat from the pancakes melts the icin’ and makes it even better.” 

Aradia put a fork full of the home fries into her mouth, humming approval at the salty greasy taste. She followed it with a second bite, then third until she had finished the potatoes. 

“Now, we try the pancakes.” 

Aradia picked up her knife and cut a wedge out of her stack of flapjacks. After spearing them with her fork she brought the pieces to her mouth. Almost as soon as her mouth closed around them she groaned quietly. Eridan, who had been closely (creepily) watching for her reaction, smiled. 

“Yeah, I know.” He said, starting to cut his. 

“I have to admit, you knew what you were doing with ordering” 

“Well duh, but let me guess, that doesn’t make it okay.” 

“Yeah that’s pretty much it.” She took another bite of pancakes. “But all things considered” She said, looking meaningfully at the pancakes, “I’m willing to let it go this once.” 

“Good.” 

The rest of the meal passed pleasantly, as did the car ride to the library, and their working on the project after that. Overall, Aradia thought in her room after he had insisted on taking her back home, the day had gone pretty well. Although, she had once again forgotten to return his sweatshirt. But she wasn’t really worried, because this was most definitely not the last time she would see mister Eridan Ampora.


	11. Things You Probably Forgot About ((I did too…))

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things happen :)

Aradia woke up at the perfect time to wake up: 10 AM. She stretched leisurely. Sundays were her day off, day off from everything. She got up slowly and made her way to the kitchen where she rummaged in the cabinet for her Fruit Loops. Aradia poured herself a bowl and started slightly as something large and wrapped in plastic fell into her bowl on top of the cereal. She laughed quietly when she realized it was some sort of prize, and that she had accidentally bought the box with a prize in it at the store. Sitting the box aside she snatched the prize out of the bowl greedily. She tore into the plastic and dumped the prize into her hand. It was a skull ring! It was made out of hard off-white plastic with the nose, eye, and teeth craters shaded darker. It was so perfect. Aradia had forgotten how close they were to Halloween. It was the beginning of September, so Kanaya’s party was in about two weeks and Halloween was in about two months. It was a little early to be having Halloweenish prizes, not that Aradia minded. Halloween was her favorite holiday! All the scary costumes and decorations. Aradia slipped the skull ring onto her pointer finger and got to pouring milk on her cereal. After she finished breakfast she quickly rinsed her bowl and spoon and placed them in the dishwasher. 

Since she had nothing in particular to do she figured she’d head out to the park and just go for a walk or something. But instead as she reached the bottom of the stairs she was intercepted by her landlord. 

“Did I forget to pay again?” Aradia wondered aloud. 

“No. But a package came for you days ago and it’s been sitting here, junking up my lobby.” 

“Oh. Uh, sorry, sir.” 

“That’s not all. You haven’t checked your mailbox in at least a week. It’s practically overflowing. The fact that you’re living on your own successfully, amazes me to no end.” 

“Well, thank you for letting me know about the package.” Aradia said not so sincerely. 

He grumbled some sort of reply under his breath. Well. So much for a walk right now. Aradia pulled open her mailbox and pulled out a large stack of envelopes. She didn’t check her mailbox very often, true, but she normally didn’t get near this much mail. Most of it was probably junk any way. Aradia ran back up the stairs, curious about the contents of the inconspicuous brown cardboard box that her grumpy landlord had notified her about. She didn’t really remember ordering anything. Back in her apartment she grabbed a pair of scissors from the kitchen drawer and carefully sliced the tape. Inside the box, the object was wrapped in bubble wrap. Or objects, as she pulled out the object it was clear that it separated from another layer of bubble wrap and she could see something red through it. Oh! Aradia knew what this was. She remembered her etsy shopping spree for her mask for Kanaya’s 21st birthday. She unwrapped the first item and saw it was the feather ‘spray’ things. Once unwrapped, the next item proved to be the red feather pad that in real life still looked a little too bulky to just attach like that. On the bottom, still wrapped up was the mask base. She carefully unwrapped it and held it up to her face. 

“Yes, this will definitely work.” She said aloud. She never had gotten around to getting a hot glue gun. But it was Sunday, so anything she wanted to happen could. She looked at the pile of mail next to her on the kitchen table. Yeah she probably should take care of that first. The majority of it was junk mail, catalogues and flyers for different places. There was also one of those envelopes with bubble wrap inside. Aradia cut that open carefully, not sure about what was inside. She tilted the envelope down and the rhinestone covered skull charm fell into her open palm. Right, her finishing touch to the mask. She sat the charm next to her other mask things and pushed the envelope into her pile of trash. After a quick decision to not make a mess of her kitchen she put all the bubble wrap and discardable mail into the box from the other mask things. The only piece of mail left was a letter from home. Despite the way she talked and acted Aradia knew Damara was fiercely overprotective of her. Damara insisted upon writing letters to her in college so she could ‘protect her from downfall’. Oh god. If Damara found out what Sollux did, she would kill him. Probably figuratively. Hopefully figuratively. Aradia tore open the envelope carefully and pulled out the letter. Another way Aradia knew Damara cared was the fact she actually wrote the letters out in English, even if she deliberately neglected to use proper grammar. The letter read as follows: 

“Dear little sister, 

I hope you well. You happy at school? Classes go good? Glasses boyfriend be good? Home is good. Mom still work much but her business seem to go good. Met new boy in computer store. He lecturing people on rude word choice. Say ‘trigger’ many time. Wear red sweater. Total cute. Tried introduce self. He so confused he agree to give phone number. He seems sweet. Think I like. Not sure. Boys always break promises and hearts. Not again. Not you. Not ever for you. You come home soon? We watch animes and eat ice cream. Miss you. Love you. -Damara” 

Sometimes Aradia really missed home. Damara was a lot to handle but she loved her too. Damara had introduced her to a lot of things in those four years, after she had gotten over the initial awkward stage. But after the first month or so she treated her like her own little sister, even if she treated Aradia a little like a kid. She had showed Aradia her favorite animes and made the two of you top raman pretty much every Friday night. Damara was the one who had taken Aradia’s 15 year old self to get her ears pierced and had paid for it too. 

Aradia grabbed a school notebook and a red pen and sat to write a reply: 

“Dear big sister, 

I’m fine out here at school. My classes are going well and i’m working at the library in my free time for spending money. Actually, Sollux and I broke up. I’m okay though. You don’t need to worry about me. I’m fine. 

It’s good to know things are still fine at home. I’m still pretty sure I don’t want to know Mom’s work. But i’m happy that it’s going well for her. Also you know it isn’t fair to tease me like that. You need to give me all the details about that new boy! Also can I remind you that it isn’t nice to trick them into giving you their numbers. We both know that you’re a bit scary to meet for the first time. Then again, you still got the digits so I guess in this case the ends justify the means. I’m not sure when I can come home again. Thanksgiving break for sure, probably not before that though. I miss you too. Tell Mom that I love you guys, okay? Try not to scare away this new boy too quickly. 

Love, Aradia.” 

Aradia considered not telling her about Sollux for a second, but she figured it was better to tell her that they had broken up at least, even if she neglected the how. It would be rude to not tell her, not to mention that when it came to Aradia’s matters of the heart, Damara seemed to have some sixth sense. After a terrible breakup caused by nothing other than cheating (welp. shit.) Damara had a short downward spiral. After it, (about four years ago) she was never as trusting and almost regarded boys as playthings. She didn’t bare her soul to anyone but Aradia it seemed. 

Aradia found an envelope somewhere in her mess of a desk and wrote home’s address on it and ran down to the mailbox on the street. The postman would collect it later that day. Aradia jogged back up to her apartment and moved her trash to the trash. Looking thoughtfully at her pile of mask supplies she considered where she could get a hot glue gun. There was no craft store in walking distance, not to mention that buying one just for this would be a bit of a waste. So the real question was, which one of her friends would have one. After a short moment of consideration she decided that Kanaya was her best bet. 

Aradia grabbed her phone and called her fashionista friend. After two rings she heard her friend answer in her polished voice. 

“Hello?” 

“Kanaya! Hey!” 

“Aradia?” 

“Yup.” 

“What a pleasant surprise. You don’t frequently call on a Sunday.” 

“Hmm, no I guess I don’t.” 

“So, what is it that you need?” 

“Well actually, I was wondering if you had a hot glue gun.” 

“I believe I do. May I inquire about your intentions for this crafting apparatus?” 

“Well, someone I know is having a masquerade ball. And I have a certain lack of a mask. So I’m making one happen.” 

Aradia could hear the smile in her voice when she replied, “Well, the I can only assume it is of the utmost importance. I’d be an absolute villain if I denied you this. I had to see you sometime soon anyway.” 

“Why’s that?” 

“I did make you a promise if you went clubbing with us after all.” 

It took Aradia a moment before it clicked. “Wait! You were serious?! A skull?!” 

“I promised, did I not?” 

“I thought you were just saying that to make me come because I was moping.” 

“Why, I’m hurt. I’ll be over in half an hour if that is alright. And I cannot stay long, as I can only trust Rose alone in my house for so long.” 

“Oh. Don’t worry about coming to drop that off for me if she’s already there. That would just be rude.” 

“She insists. I think she just wants to snoop while i’m gone. Either way I’ll be over in approximately 30 minutes.” 

“Okay. Thanks, Kanaya!” 

“It’s no problem. Bye for now.” 

Aradia heard the click of the call disconnecting. Rose and Kanaya. Friends? Or more? She grinned mischievously. There was only a ton of ways to find out. Aradia knew one that was the easiest though. She went back to her phones contacts and selected another to call. 

“Purr-adia?” 

“Hey there Nep. Quick question.” 

“Shoot.” 

“Kanaya and Rose?” 

“The cutest and classiest couple I know? What about them?” 

“Nothing. I just was curious if they were a couple. I’m so out of the loop on these things but you’re on top of it, so I came to you.” 

“Glad I could help mew. You gonna be on the game later?” 

“Yeah, yeah. It’s been a few days.” 

“Welp. Then I’ll see mew there. We can still beat this terrible game! I know it!” 

“Okay, Nep. I’ll talk to you later.” 

“Bye.” 

By the game Nepeta could only mean S-burb, that rpg Aradia played with all her friends. The game was about the end of the world, and having to do various tasks to build another world for other people. So that the game characters will have somewhere to live. The game itself feels infinite. Character customization was off the charts. Aradia and her friends decided to all build characters who were trolls. These trolls shared gray skin, black hair, rainbow colored blood, and horns. The ‘leader’ of her group (Karkat- Aradia doesn’t think she’s met him face to face) decided that being anything else in the game - especially humans- would be “UNTHINKABLY AND ENTIRELY STUPID, YOU FUCKWITTS”. So everyone in her session designed their avatar as trolls. 

But just because in the game they were all the same race didn’t mean they looked the same. Not by far. All the characters had different blood colors and horn shapes. The blood colors weren’t just for show either. Blood colors were a way of ranking the characters in this game. What blood caste you were in would dictate how easy it would be for you. Trolls higher in the blood caste system had more boondollars and could earn them more easily. Their hive (home) was also larger and nicer and they had a more powerful lusus. The lusus was pretty much a parent. Lusii were helpful and were pretty much the game’s tutorials, but felt more like a parent. It had for Aradia anyway. Some people in the session supposedly got the short end of the stick with lusii. Actually it seemed more of the highbloods had issues with their lusii. Oh, Yeah. Aradia was a lowblood. The lowest actually. Not that she minded. She had a lurking suspicion about how everyone was ranked in the blood caste system too. In the character customization setup there had been some strange questions. Things like ‘Where do your parents work?’ and ‘How much do they make on an average year?’ and ‘Do you consider yourself wealthy?’ Aradia had answered honestly and then had been taken to another webpage to customize her character. 

There were some things she hadn’t been able to change about her avatar though: the maroon blood, curled ram’s horns, maroon eyes, or symbol (which was actually a double for the aries symbol). But she could make the black hair long, and curly like her own. At first the game had just been a lot of fun. Doing things like designing her hive and learning from Rammom, her lusus. Being a lowblood didn’t matter. Sollux was relatively low in the blood caste system too, and her new friend Tavros. Then Sollux’s character had been mind controlled (probably a hack code) by Vriska, a mean spirited midblood who was angry and her and Tavros because of FLARP, a minigame in S-burb. She forced him to eat something called mind honey, which caused the telekinetic powers Sollux had been gifted to act up. He showed up at her hive, without any control over his character and caused her hive to collapse. Rammom was killed under the rubble. So was Aradia. That’s when she thought she was done with S-burb. But instead of a GAME OVER message popping up her screen went blank. It was like that, totally black, for a good hour before the screen suddenly flashed back to life. She was still at her hive (the wreckage of her hive at least). The only thing that had changed was her avatar. Her character’s maroon eyes were now white blanks, and her clothes were tattered. Also, she suddenly had been gifted with psychic powers like Sollux’s. She could still do everything she could before, and could also fly for easy in-game travel and could select items and move them at her will. At that point, everything was okay with Aradia. She wasn’t totally thrilled about the game anymore like she had been in the beginning when she discovered she could go exploring in game and had even discovered a white version of Indiana Jones’s hat or when she later found a weird breastplate made of a cold silver metal with her symbol on it in blue. So the game had gone on with her death, she had continued helping her friends out, though she didn’t chat to them as much, and when she did she wasn’t exactly thrilled about the things they were telling her. Once she was dead though another strange thing happened to her that wasn’t happening to anyone else in her session. If she was idle for any amount of time messages would start popping up. Messages from unknown sources had intrigued Aradia right away, even in her dead state. She found out then that these were messages from other dead characters, from their own session. They were automated, Aradia knew, but that just meant their advice was even more accurate. These spirits of the dead often said more interesting things than the people in her session so she often communed with them. The dead let her know all kinds of things going on in the game, including some things that hadn’t even happened yet at that point. So she hadn’t been as surprised as she might have been when Equius Zahhak started talking to her. And as things progressed Equius manufactured her a robot body, something she hadn’t even realized was possible for her. He really messed up though when he tried to take advantage of her in her new body. Aradia hated to think what would have happened if the red feelings he manufactured in the heart of the robot were any stronger. As it was Aradia had been frantically typing to try and regain control of her avatar on the screen. Well things had gotten a little strange between the two of them but it didn’t bother her too much. After all she had a new body and everything. She knew even more things as a robot and focused on helping her friends out in their session. She even talked to one of the human players to try and keep things from getting messy but that was a little more difficult than she’d hoped. Aradia had actually exploded; well aradiabot did anyway. After she’d exploded all she could do was watch her friends play but not interact with them in any way, shape, or form. Her own avatar could only be viewed laying down on some far off strange planet. Other than that the only thing the game would let her do is choose which player to view. Sometime after she’d exploded the shit really hit the fan. The rage player had been true to his aspect. He went on an insane killing spree which Aradia tensely watched. Things hadn’t calmed down between the hope player and Sollux either who were arguing over the life player. Which had always been Feferi. But by the end of this mad period of time the number of dead was much higher. Kanaya, Feferi, Nepeta, Equius, Tavros, the hope player: all dead. And then suddenly Aradia wasn’t dead. She achieved god tier somehow. She was alive with a new outfit, new powers, butterfly wings, and a new will to live. With her new powers she could freeze time, as well as travel freely through it. She also had new access to dream bubbles: small contained locations with people from alternate timelines. Aradia considered herself the guardian of the dream bubbles. Actually dream bubbles were the only way she could see some of her friends in the game anymore, Nepeta for example. Which is why it mattered to Nepeta if Aradia got on. Aradia made a point of searching out Nepeta in the bubbles whenever she logged on so they could explore or just fool around. Nepeta took death well enough and was usually still her cheery self. After all, sooner or later she’d likely end up in god tier too. And then they could focus on winning the game. 

A soft knock came at the door and interrupted Aradia’s thoughts. Not surprisingly it was Kanaya. In one hand she held a cloth bag which without a doubt held the hot glue gun. Her other hand was clenched into a fist. 

“I included extra sticks of glue so there should be more than enough as well as one infused with finely ground silver sparkles, should it be necessary.” 

“Thanks for running it over on such short notice.” 

“It was no problem really.” 

“Hey, didn’t you say you had a skull… ?” 

“I did in fact mention something to that effect.” 

Aradia looked curiously around, trying to avoid just rudely asking for it. After an awkwardly silent moment she started, “So… ?” 

“Here.” On that word Kanaya unclenched her fist and a small charm on a silver chain dropped down. On closer inspection the charm was a little skull, simple, but cute and extruded to form a cute charm that was probably extremely fashionable. 

Aradia pouted but took the necklace anyway, “You tricked me.” 

“I never said a human skull did I?” 

“Knowing you, you probably said something that could easily describe this and therefore gave me exactly what you promised.” 

“That sounds about right.” Knaya said, smiling. 

“Well it is pretty nice, so i’ll let this one slide.” 

“Did you know that most people don’t need to be bribed to have a fun night out with their friends?” 

“Shoooosh, Kanaya. That’s beyond the point.” 

“Naturally. Now, not that this hasn’t been nice, but I really should get back before Rose finds something that i’d prefer she didn’t.” 

Aradia made a tsk sound, “Keeping secrets?” 

Kanaya’s only response was to wink at her before heading out the door. Aradia rolled her eyes before putting the necklace in the one place she couldn’t lose it: around her neck. Then she grabbed the glue gun bag from the table and headed back into her room to work on her project. After she finished this all she’d have to do would be to get a dress. Yeah cause that couldn’t be hard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Love you guys <3 Remember to pester me at aprilletherainbowcat.tumblr.com (i no longer have any shame about that url)


	12. Projects with Dumb Hipsters and Agreeing to unwanted things

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm such a shit human and this chapter is also probably shit and im sorry this took forever its just school and everything but i'm going to do my best, my VERY best from now on. As a reward for sticking w/ this story i'm going to get the next chapter out in a week or less for you guys. Also sorry if this chapter is a little out of character it just feels a little off.

The next day was a typical Monday, stiff and business-like, as Mondays tend to be. Aradia had a class, which was entirely ordinary for her. However, what she was doing after that class was what concerned her a little. It seemed that Kanaya had given Eridan her phone number too, Because Eridan had called the day before while she was working on her mask (which was now finished to her satisfaction) and asked if they could get together at his apartment to work on their project. The essay would be the easier half of the project as both students had written their fair share of essays. The lesson portion of the project would be a little more tricky. Aradia had told Eridan her plan when they had gone for breakfast, but it was all hypothetical. 

Because she didn’t really want to have her and Eridan switch back and forth and lecture the class the entire period they came up with an alternative. The plan was a tad childish and by a tad Aradia meant a lot childish, but she liked the idea and Eridan hadn’t had many protests. What they wanted to do was do some sort of webquest, but in a text based adventure style. Since everyone in the class had their laptops this shouldn’t cause a problem, but they would both ask their teachers to be safe. The text based adventure would have the player start as the captain on a greek battleship at war. They would choose from multiple choices and if they picked the wrong option the real life result of that would be shown and why. They could then go back and pick again and then once the right option was chosen an explanation for why that step was needed would be given and they could move on to the next choice. The game would be played through in a half hour or so and was won with the warship captain’s victory. The only thing that could be difficult would be to actually code it. But naturally Aradia had a plan for that too. And she knew exactly what would happen when she threw it into action. Aradia had a little time before she had to leave for class, and she was ready to go, so she decided to use her plan for coding help. She smirked as she pulled out her phone and dialed the number. 

“AA?” Sollux sounded confused and a little concerned. 

“Hello, Sollux.” 

“This is awkward.” 

“Only because you made it awkward.” 

“Why did you call?” 

“Oh come on, Sollux. You don’t have to rush to get to the point. Let’s have a regular conversation. How’s Feferi?” 

“She’s good? Look AA, I’m sorry it happened the way it did.” 

“The fact that I found out that you were cheating on me? Or the fact that I didn’t just forgive you? Or maybe the fact we ever dated at all?” 

“God. No. I fucked up. I know I did. I like you, I do. But I also like FF. She’s really nice, I think you’d like her.” 

“I’m sure I would. _She_ seems like a perfectly nice person, for one. So I really hope no one fucks up in a relationship with her. Because having your heart torn out and stepped on sucks.” 

“I don’t really have a way to reply to that.” 

Aradia knew she was being cruel. She was pretty much perfectly okay with their breakup at this point. But being cruel about this and making him feel guilty would just help her get what she needed. 

“Don’t bother with a reply. You were right though. This wasn’t a purely social call. I have a favor to ask.” 

“A favor?” 

“Yeah. It shouldn’t be hard for you.” 

“What is it?” 

“I need you to code something for me?” 

“Oh?” Aradia could tell his interest was sparked. There was no way he would say no. 

“Yes. Actually, it’s super important too. So I needed someone I could _trust_ to help me out.” 

Aradia heard Sollux chuckle nervously. Why didn’t she manipulate people more often? This wasn’t hard at all. Oh yeah, because she’d hate to be a total bitch with a hand in everyone’s business like Vriska. 

“It’s for a project for my ancient history class. I have to teach the class and we were thinking that rather than lecturing everyone we could do a tba.” 

He hesitated a moment, registering the abbreviation. “A text based adventure?” 

“Yeah. We can take care of the writing of course, we just need you to do the coding and set it all up.” 

“We?” 

“Oh, it’s a partner project. I’m working with Eridan. Uh, Eridan Ampora.” 

Sollux hissed a curse out on the other end of the line. 

“You know him, Sol?” 

“I wish I could say I didn’t.” 

“He’s not that bad, Sollux.” 

“Like hell he isn’t. He’s conceited, overbearing, completely insufferable. He’s totally in love with FF too. It’s creepy.” 

“Feferi?” 

“She says they’re just ‘best fronds’ but I can tell he likes her. So of course he hates me.” 

“Well from the way you’re talking I somehow doubt you were very nice to him.” 

“No one should be nice to him.” 

“Sollux!” 

“He’s a total creep. A pompous ass. You’re quick to defend him, AA. I really hope you haven’t stooped to be keeping company with someone like _him_.” 

“In case you forgot, we stopped dating the moment I found out that you were cheating on me. Therefore you also lost the privilege to tell me who I can or can not associate with. Not that you could ever really tell me. But before all this, maybe I would have considered it. You tell me to keep better company, well I was apparently dating a cheater, so how far have my standards _really_ fallen. Not as far as anyone else would assume." 

Sollux was silent. Aradia hadn’t meant to lose her temper and lash out. 

“Sollux, I didn’t call to pick a fight with you. I’m not even that angry at you. Maybe a little disappointed, but I won’t even try to screw you over with Feferi. She seems nice. So don’t fuck up again, alright? But I really need help with this project and you’re the only one who can do it.” 

“EQ could do it. He programs those robots so he can definitely do that type of thing too.” 

“God Sollux, I know you cheated on me but I didn’t think you disliked me that much. You know things are a little awkward between Equius and I.” 

“Fine. I’ll help. But I’m going to need you there to help.” 

“Which means Eridan really should be there too.” 

“Is it too late to change my mind about doing this?” 

“Yup. No take backs. But if it makes you feel better I guess you could bring Feferi. It’s probably going to take more than me to keep you two from killing each other if he dislikes you as much as you dislike him.” 

“Fine. When are we doing this?” 

“Well, today Eridan and I are getting together to work on the project, so maybe tomorrow. I’m not sure. It depends on how much we get done. Is that alright?” 

“Yeah, sure.” 

“I’ll call to tell you if tomorrow will be too soon or not.” 

“Talk to you then.” 

Aradia disconnected the call. She didn’t exactly like being rude to Sollux, but at this point not being vengeful at all would be unhealthy. It was about time for class so Aradia hurried over to the university. 

After class Aradia sat on the edge of the fountain in front of the library. Eridan was going to meet her there to pick her up considering his apartment wasn’t exactly in walking distance. He had told her the dorms weren’t good enough for him so he got his own place. It was so like him Aradia had to laugh. She could have predicted something like this and she didn’t even know him that well yet. At least he was offering to pick her up. 

It wasn’t long until Eridan came walking briskly up to her. 

“Ready to go?” 

“Yes.” 

“Alright.” 

They walked to where he had parked his car and Aradia still had to stifle giggles the second time. Something this exuberant was ridiculous. He repeated the chivalrous door opening and she got in, no big deal. Once they had pulled out and he had started driving she started up a conversation. 

“So. I got us help for the TBA.” 

“Oh. Good. That didn’t take long as I had expected.” 

“Well, I said I knew someone so you shouldn’t be all that surprised. But what really matters now is getting the writing done. If we can finish it then he agreed to help us out tomorrow.” 

“Alright. I guess we can get that done. It’ll take a while, but we have all night, right?” 

“More or less.” 

“So. Who is this guy?”, Eridan said, glancing over at Aradia. 

“That’s the awkward part. He’s my ex. My very recent ex.” 

“Yeah. I see where that could be awk- wait. You mean the cheatin’ one?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Please don’t tell me you’re considerin’ taking him back?” 

“No. I mean he’s already moved on to the other girl anyway.” 

“Poor her. Poor you. That is not how you treat a girl as nice as you are.” 

“Like you’re one to talk. It doesn’t matter though. I could have told her, but I didn’t. I don’t really mind anyway.” 

“That can’t be true, Ar. I mean everyone has feelins. Everyone gets hurt.” 

“Speaking from personal experience.” 

“Yeah.” 

“Feferi?” 

Aradia watched for his reaction and was not disappointed when he jerked his head over to look at her fast enough to probably have hurt it. 

“That’s what I though.” 

“How the hell did you find out?” 

“It doesn’t matter.” 

“Yeah it does. Someone is spreadin’ rumors about me an I gotta stop it.” 

“It’s not a rumor that’s going around, he’d just mentioned it.” 

“So who is this ass?” 

“Sollux Ca-” 

“Captor.” Eridan scowled. “He would say that. I assume in a bad way.” 

“He did say it was creepy. Your obsession with Feferi.” 

“I’m not obsessed with her. I liked her in the past. A lot. I told her and she turned me down. We didn’t talk for a while and that was when she first met _him_. I might have blown up at the two of them, but after that I doubled my efforts to win her back. Just as a friend. She forgave me, how couldn’t she though, after all these years. But I almost fucked it up. I’ve already messed up enough that she’s datin' him. I can’t mess up again. Losin' her would kill me.” 

Aradia didn’t think she’d ever heard him talk with so much real emotion before. 

“Sorry.” 

“For what, it was my fault anyway.” 

“I just sympathize. You’re like Eponine.” 

“No. I used to be, but it’s gettin' better. Little bit at a time.” 

Aradia laughed and laughed. She just couldn’t stop. Eridan kept glancing at her. It seemed she’d finally lost it. 

“What’s so funny?” 

This just made her laugh harder, but eventually she sat back up and gasping for breath, managed to choke out, “So, you’ve seen Les Mis too. You’re a musical-phile.” 

“Seriously? This is like when you were hung up on me havin’ seen Phantom?” 

“So, what other musicals have you seen?” 

“None. No more.” 

“I’ll find out sooner or later.” 

“There is nothin' to find out.” 

“I don’t believe that for an instant. But congrats either way about not being hung up on your best friend.” 

“Thanks. We’re about halfway home, by the way.” 

The car was silent for a second before Eridan half shouted a loud, “Wait! Sollux. Sollux fuckin' Captor is the one who cheated on you and now he’s datin' Feferi?” 

“Yeah…” 

“Not if I have anythin' to do with it! I’ll get her to dump his ass. We may have been at an awkward spot, but he’s a cheatin' bastard.” 

“You can’t tell her.” 

“Why the hell not?” 

“Because it will upset her. She’s happy with him. I honestly don’t think he’d dare to do it again. I wouldn’t have kept quiet about it if it was something I saw coming at all.” 

“I knew there was somethin' wrong with that guy. I never trusted him.” 

“Eridan.” Aradia gently laid her hand on his arm. “I know you’re worried about her. She’s your best friend. Of course you’re worried. But she’ll be fine.” 

“There’s no way to _know_ that though.” 

“There’s no way to know that we won’t die in a car wreck in the next five minutes, our bodies mangled beyond recognition with the only identifying thing about us being that we’re in your obnoxious car. But we still drive, because it makes things better.” 

“But what if he breaks her heart, Ar. It may seem _‘obsessive’_ but I worry. She’s just too good for this world, I’d hate to see her eaten alive.” 

“I think she deserves more credit than that. From what I’ve seen, she’s nice, but intuitive and intelligent. She may be bubbly, but she’s not dumb. She’s a big girl. She can take care of herself, Eri.” 

“I know, but I still wor- Eri?” 

“Sorry.” 

“No. I was just taken a little off guard.” 

“In all seriousness though. I think she’ll be alright, and if she’s not, I know you’ll be at her side in an instant to pick up the pieces.” 

Eridan sighed. 

The next five minutes were filled with an uncomfortable silence. Eridan pulled the car into a parking lot next to a nice looking apartment building. It actually was less extravagant than Aradia had expected, and it was nice to see that everything he had didn’t have to be over the top. They were immersed in the same silence on the elevator ride up to the top floor. Strangely enough the elevator required him to turn his key in a keyhole next to the button for his floor for it to work. The reason behind it was evident as the elevator doors opened and showed that the entire floor was his. 

“God, Eridan. This place is huge.” 

“It’s just the place’s penthouse. It’s a tad shabby anyway.” Aradia could tell he was still upset. 

Aradia rolled her eyes. She understood why he was upset, but she knew how this thing would play out, so she wasn’t worried. So she walked around the spacious flat, taking a look at home of the mysterious Eridan Ampora. It was very modern and spacious, and was brightly lighted. The living room was the first thing she saw. It had white walls and a white tiled floor. A low sitting rectangular black coffee table (that lacked even one scratch) sat on a white rug. A black couch was behind the coffee table and on the opposite wall, a flat screen television hung. She walked into the next room, which proved to be the kitchen, with Eridan trailing after her. In the center was an island with a white marble countertop that extended out over the island base on one side to form a table area. Bar stools were pushed under the overhang. The rest of the kitchen was nondescript, with white cabinets covering the back wall, only interrupted by a stainless steel sink. She walked into a short hallway with four doors, all closed. 

“I’ll stop now.” 

“I’ll show you. It doesn’t matter.” 

He opened the closest door, which revealed an empty bedroom of reasonable size. It was furnished in a basic way but had an empty feel. This made sense. Aradia didn’t think Eridan would have been thrilled to share the apartment he was only renting because of cluttered dorms. Once back into the hallway he opened a door to reveal a reasonably sized bathroom with classic black and white tiles. Aradia noticed with a twinge of jealousy that the bathroom had a full tub, rather than just a shower stall like her little bathroom. The countertop was covered with various hair and face products, all neatly lined up. This army of self care products were the first real evidence that someone lived there. On the other side was another door that most likely connected to Eridan’s bedroom. This was confirmed when they went back into the hall and he opened the second to last door. 

It was evident that it was the most lived in room. The walls were done in a dark gray with the carpets a similar color. Against the back wall was his bed, which had a black bedspread. The room was furnished sensibly, with a tall standing floor lamp in the corner next to his desk. He had a pc on the desk and a jumble of papers, probably for classes. Aradia’s favorite feature to the room was probably the basket tree next to the door, which was hung with numerous scarves and hats.Without even asking Aradia walked over to what could only be his closet and through the door open. Her curiosity had brought an interesting reward. The closet was positively packed with different things. Aradia noticed multiple suits including an actual tuxedo, all in bags. She’d bet he had them ironed too. The majority of the rest of the things included various button ups and a concerning amount of flannel. Aradia could only assume she’d see a lot of it once the weather got even cooler. Looking at the floor in the closet only confirmed Aradia’s earlier musings that he had more shoes than she did. She bit back a laugh at that, only half succeeding. Curiosity sated, she turned back and took a step back towards the room, only to find Eridan closer than she had thought him. The two suddenly found themselves face to face and Aradia’s eyes went wide. Aradia’s mouth fell open to try and say something, apologize perhaps but the motion drew Eridan’s gaze to her lips, where it lingered for a second. 

Aradia couldn't keep a blush from slowly crawling across her cheeks as she backed up and mumbled an apology. Eridan’s reply was even less understandable, but he turned and led her back to the living room, effectively stopping any possibility of something happening between the two of them, in that moment. In the living room Eridan took a seat on the couch and gestured for Aradia to join him before quickly looking back at his backpack to get out his computer. Aradia followed suit and there was another strained moment. 

“So. How do we want to start this off, Ar?”, Eridan asked without looking at her. 

“We should start with introducing the setting and character. Something like ‘You're a captain of the greek naval ship’ uh we need a name but then it could be like ‘your country is currently at war with the’ whoever and just set it up.” 

“Alright. That makes sense.” 

“The next one would be something to the effect of….” 

The rest of that afternoon passed slowly for the two college students. Casual conversation was minimal, but Aradia almost considered this fortunate, as they were able to accomplish a considerable amount in less time than she’d expected. They finished the outline of the whole thing in about an hour, and after a short snack break, went back and edited it until it was satisfactory. Once the storyline was finished, Aradia turned to look at Eridan. At some point during their work she had kicked off her shoes and ended up half curled up against the right side of the couch. 

“So. Should I call Sollux and let him know that we finished?” 

“Where are we goin' to meet up?” 

“Oh. Hmm. We hadn’t decided that.” 

“I know a place. A small Italian restaurant.” 

Aradia frowned, Eridan had an odd look on his face. 

“Would we be able to get work done?” 

“I can get us the private room. I’m sure we can get done what we need to get done.” 

“This still sounds more like a double date than a school project based meeting.” 

“Well, they are a couple. Whether I fuckin’ like it or not.” 

“We aren’t though. Remember that.” 

“I know, I know. Your weird datin' complex.” 

“It isn’t a complex. This just isn’t a date.” 

“The next one will be.” 

“Eridan I don’t think I want a relationship now.” 

“Not a relationship. Just a date or two.” 

“We can talk about it later.” 

“Fine. I’ll call Fef and tell her when to get that douche over to the restaurant. When did we decide to meet up?” 

“Some time after noon.” 

“Fine. We’ll meet up at 2. I’ll get you at 1:45.” 

Aradia raised her eyebrow and looked at him. There he went again, deciding everything for her. Sure, he knew where the restaurant is. But to just tell her how everything would go, without even asking her opinion was something she simply couldn’t stand. But considering that she had no other ride and was definitely not asking Sollux, she couldn’t exactly complain. So, everything was settled for the next day’s meetup, and they were ready. At least Aradia knew their project would be fine, even if the strange relationship between the two college students doing the project wasn’t nearly so stable or sure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seriously I love you guys feel free to send me an ask on tumblr or fan mail and i'll even totally give you my google so we can do a vid call through hang outs if you want. idk, i really do love all you guys and hearing from you is what makes it worth it. Plus you all have different ideas and views on how i should write the characters we all know and love (and hearing those might help me w/ characterization and dialogue)


	13. Petulant People, Pasta, and Persuasion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ... i never write chapter summaries... Should I start doing that or nah?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> two weeks isn't too bad is it?

The little Italian restaurant that Eridan had recommended was relatively empty when Aradia entered, Eridan a step behind her. It was a Tuesday after all, she reminded herself. The place probably wasn’t empty because the food wasn’t good, especially since Eridan had recommended it, and he was enough of a snob that it had to be quality. The restaurant greeter looked relieved to have something to do and he called out a politely enthused “Welcome! Table for two?” Eridan replied quickly, “We called ahead and reserved the back room. There are two more in our party who have yet to arrive.” Aradia didn’t realize that he’d actually made reservations. Maybe she should have dressed up more than black and white tribal print leggings, a fitted black shirt with buttons (that didn’t actually button the shirt) down the front, and maroon vans. Well, it was a little late now. The greeter led them to a medium sized room in the back with a round table that could just as easily seat 10 people as it could seat 4. Through the halls there were countless paintings of various italian scenes, significant people, or just different vintage advertisements. Between those, the plush red carpet, gold molded ceilings, and soft music for atmosphere the place felt very comfortable but also very nice. In the back room, the walls were still covered with various pictures. A small chandelier hung from the ceiling and around it, angels were painted in blue skies. When the man had directed them to this room, he’d commented that it was called the pope room. Aradia had briefly wondered why, but figured it was just a nicer or larger room or something. Now she knew the answer however. In the center of the round table, on a lazy susan, was a creepy, waxy looking bust of the pope in a glass case. Upon seeing this Aradia stopped one step into the room. 

Eridan continued into the room, but noticing that she wasn’t behind him, stopped. 

“What is it, Ar?” 

“What is _that_?” 

“The pope?” 

“Yes.” 

“It’s the pope. The pope is the pope. It’s called the pope room after all.” 

“Well. I guess it is _sort_ of cool. But the eyes freak me out.” 

“Yeah. The eyes look a little off. Here, have a seat.” 

He pulled out a chair on the far side of the table, so that she could watch the door while they waited. He took the seat next to her. 

“You know, Eridan, I misjudged you. Especially seeing your big fancy apartment, I couldn’t imagine you liking a little place like this.” 

He averted his eyes while he answered, “Well, my brother brought me here when we came down a week before school to get me set up in the apartment. And it’s sort of grown on me.” 

“That’s sweet. You never told me you had a brother.” 

“That’s cause he’s normally a womanizin’ douche with a personality from the 50s” 

“Oh.” The outburst was unexpected from Eridan. It seemed family was a touchy subject. 

“Yeah.” 

“Well, I like it here. The place has a cool feel to it.” 

“I like it too.” 

“Yeah, it just feels like home, so relaxed and full of life at the same time.” 

“Is that what a home is supposed to be like?” 

“He asks the orphan. But yeah. It’s what my foster homes were like anyway.” That comment seemed to be for attention, with the way he said it, but since she didn’t have much else to say at the moment, she figured she might as well indulge him. 

“What was your home like?” 

“No, don’t worry about it. It’s not a light dinner conversation.” 

“Eridan. I can tell you wanted me to ask. So spill the sob story that somehow also co-exists with being the heir to a company. A very wealthy company, I may add.” 

“Ar!” He whines, “That was rude.” 

“But you wanted me to ask. So tell me.” 

“No. I’m not gonna now.” 

“Alright.” Aradia gives the lazy suzan a spin and watches the pope turn. Then gave it a harder push so the pope did just over three rotations. Eridan grabbed her wrist when she went to push it again and she frowned at him. What else was she supposed to do? 

“What time did Feferi say they’d be getting here anyway?” 

“Right about now!” Feferi’s cheerful voice sounded from the doorway. 

“It’s about time, Fef.” 

“Wow, grumpy gills! What’s wrong with you?” 

“Nothin’ .” 

“Erifin.” She reprimanded sternly. 

“It’s nothin’, Fef.” His voice softens. 

“If you say so.” 

Up until this point, the other two in the room had been awkwardly exchanging glances and keeping an eye on their respective dates. Sollux cleared his throat where he stood behind Feferi and she glanced back at him and beamed before walking into the room and seating herself across from Eridan. Sollux took the seat next to her, which placed him in the perfect position to be forced to avert his eyes throughout the meeting to avoid looking at Aradia. Instead he focuses his eyes on the pope, which had stopped turning facing his direction. 

“What the fuck is that thing?” 

“The pope?” Aradia asked. There was no way he wasn’t asking about the pope. 

“Why is there a sculpture of the pope where our food should be?” 

“Because this is the pope room.” 

“And they didn’t order without us, silly, that would have been shellfish of them!” Feferi really did seem nice, not like she was faking the cheerful persona, which Aradia had considered a possibility (who the heck uses fish puns seriously?). 

“Well, you guys are here now, so we can figure out what we want.” Aradia commented amiably. 

“The way they serve things here is large orders and then they give you plates for everyone to get what they want. It just goes along with the family-style vibe.” Eridan knowingly informed the group. 

After a while they worked out what they wanted. The restaurant was set up ‘family style’, so you ordered something and it came with either 2 or 4 servings that you dished out yourself among your party. The students finally settled on one order of cheese manicotti, one order of fettuccine alfredo, and an order of ravioli al pomodoro. As they gave their order to a waitress, another server brought out two little dishes and poured olive oil into them along with another black substance which Aradia couldn’t identify. Probably some weird italian herb. The server then set a basket of sliced bread on their table and followed the first waitress, assuring them that their food would be out soon. 

Aradia wasted no time in taking a slice of bread and dipping it in the oil, making sure to get some of the black herb thing on it and biting into it. She didn’t know what the black substance was, but it was good. Eridan looked at her disapprovingly, to which she shrugged. He looked over to Sollux and sneered slightly before pulling Aradia’s laptop out of her purse on the floor between them. Well. Purse wasn’t an accurate word. It was a large satchel. That she could easily fit anything she needed into. It was perfect, really. Eridan pressed the power button and spoke evenly to Sollux, “We finished our script. So if you wouldn’t mind, I think i’d be smart to get started with your coding shit now.” 

“Great start, asshole. That’s exactly how you win me over: insulting my profession.” 

“Hardly a profession. Sitting in front of a computer, typing out practically useless streams of numbers and letters. No wonder you can’t seem to do anything else right, all the space in your brain must be occupied by those figures.” 

Aradia and Feferi exchanged concerned glances. They didn’t even have their food yet, much less the project done. Eridan and Sollux's rivalry was a little more intense than Aradia had anticipated, though Feferi didn’t look surprised, mostly just tired of it. 

“Guys. We have work to be doing. If I can just casually remind you that this is an important grade for me. If you two bickering messes it up… Well. Who know’s what could happen. On the other hand, if you two play nice, it can only get better here on out.” Aradia looked pointedly at both of the guys, who at least had the decency to look slightly ashamed. Feferi on the other hand grinned at Aradia, who couldn’t help but return the smile. 

Eridan sat Aradia’s laptop on the lazy susan, up against the pope, after pulling their script up. He gripped the edge of the rotating tray and turned it so the computer would face Sollux. Of course this meant the pope was facing Aradia again. She thought the pope was a different idea, and that was neat. Of course it was a lot easier to think this when the fake, black, plastic eyes weren’t focused on her. She made a face at Eridan to wordlessly complain, but he only laughed in return. Sollux was busy scanning over what they had written and Feferi seemed to be eyeing Aradia and Eridan with a hint of suspicion on her face. After a moment she shrugged a little and started rummaging around in her purse. The group carried on in this silence, waiting for food and letting Sollux plan out how he would code it. After a minute or two, Aradia’s phone buzzed in her bag. She fished it out and saw she had a text from an unknown number. Curious, she opened the text. Aradia glanced over the table at Feferi after she read it. It read: “So, is there somefin going on here that my best friend cod have forgotten to tell me?” 

Aradia wasted no time in sending back, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” 

A second later a reply came back in, “ _Reelly_?” 

“Absolutely.” 

“Let’s be sea-rious for a second here.” 

Aradia decided not to point out how hard it was to be serious when you were talking in fish puns, instead taking the high road and just replying, “Okay. What’s up?” 

“Whale, I didn’t say this… But there’s a good chance Eridan could have eelings for you. He probably does. The thing is, he takes to people reelly fast believe it or not. As off-setting as he is, he’s too quick to like people. He gives it a shot and sees if the other person maybe likes him too. Otter-wise he just moves on. It’s not a great way to do things, but it’s the way he does things. Just, so you know. He’ll probably tell you himshell sooner or later. And he’ll be a total grumpy-gills afterwards if you shoot him down. But he’s a good guy, reelly!” 

Aradia’s mind was reeling (oh god now she’s doing it too). That was a bit of an information overload and the puns didn’t help. Aradia glanced around the table. First at Sollux who was doing something on her computer, then at Feferi whose eyes were focused in her lap, most likely at her phone. Lastly, Aradia looked over at Eridan, who was distractedly picking at the fringe on his scarf. “I don’t really know how I feel about him.” 

“I never manta to suggest that you had to, or anyfin. I just thought I haddock to let you know how things could go from here.” 

“That one was a bit of a stretch. And I know. I honestly don’t know how I feel though. Sometimes I feel like it’s a great idea, and other times all I can envision is it going down in flames.” 

“What, did I get too… crayative? 38) ” 

“Maybe a little. But that’s alright. So, should we stop this before one of the boys takes notice?” 

“Yeah, we betta.” 

Aradia put her phone back in her bag and shook her head at Feferi while fighting a smile. She just had to get that last one in. Or should Aradia say she _haddock_ to get it in. 

Okay, that pun is still a total stretch. Across the table Sollux looked up from the laptop and nodded. 

“I think I know how I can work this out pretty easily. I see you guys have some pretty lengthy paths with a shit-ton of offshoots so that’s will take some time but it won’t be difficult per se. I already e-mailed myself a copy of it so I can work on it at home.” 

“That’s great.” Aradia said, appreciatively. 

“The only other thing is design. Were you guys thinking anything in particular.” 

“Nothing special. It is a school project so it can just be black on white. Right, Eridan.” 

Eridan nodded his agreement and Sollux made a sound of acknowledgement. Aradia didn’t want it to be any harder for Sollux to do than it had to be. After all, he was sure to have his own things to take care of for school. Sollux closed her laptop and spun the tray back so her laptop was facing her. She was tucking it in her bag when Feferi objected, laughing, “I don’t want it facing me!” Aradia looked back up to see Feferi give it a little push so the bust of the pope was facing Eridan. He spun it the 20 degrees to get it to face Aradia, who spun it around to face Sollux. They were still engaged in this silly game a few minutes later, when a server brought their food in. He stared disapprovingly at the still spinning turntable as it gradually came to a halt. He then set the dishes of food equidistant around the lazy susan and exited the room. As soon as his back was turned the room was filled with the sniggering of the students. 

The meal passed with mostly pleasant conversations. There were a few tense moments between Eridan and Sollux, but they never progressed past glares. Although that could have been aided in part by Aradia kicking Eridan in the shin whenever Eridan looked like he was going to say something rude. The food was good. Aradia could see why Eridan would like the restaurant even though it’s atmosphere was a little informal. They all had some of everything, and lived up to the restaurant’s dream of being family style. Besides eating and talking, Aradia and Feferi had a silent game of turn the pope going. It pretty much consisted of waiting until the other person was distracted, then edging the pope around until it faced the other person. This would continue until the final minutes of the meal. 

Afterwards in the car Aradia couldn’t help but be more alert to anytime Eridan so much as glanced at her. Sure, she knew it was a possibility he liked her. After the hand holding stunt, and the whole thing the night they first met it was distinctly possible. She hadn’t realized that it could be anything deeper than just wanting to ‘get some’. Feferi’s confession made Aradia wonder if he could actually be serious in pursuing her. Plus if he was serious, what would she do. Aradia didn’t think it was right per se to have another relationship yet, but at the same time she was mostly indifferent to anything anyone would say, so it probably didn’t matter at all. The only thing that mattered then, was how she felt. If only she was sure about that. When she had initially met him he seemed like a pushy snob. That wasn’t really the case though. The more she got to know him, the more his walls were down. Aradia could hardly deny that him being a closet musical dork was sort of endearing. Perhaps she was worrying too much about everything, though. He hadn’t actually made any advances toward her. 

Next to her, Eridan cleared his throat before speaking, “That went pretty well I think.” 

“I think so too. He said he’d be able to have it done in less than a week.” 

“Not just that. Didn’t you have a good time?” 

“No, I did have a good time.” 

“Good. Would you want to do it again sometime?” 

“What, watch you and Sollux glare at each other? Or watch Feferi and Sollux be nauseatingly sweet in a way entirely too reminiscent to the way we were?” 

“Neither. Look, you’re not making this easy.” 

“Making what easy?” 

“Asking you out. I want to know if you’d go on a date with me sometime.” 

So much for no advances toward her. 

“I… maybe?” 

“Maybe?” 

“I don’t really know.” 

“Well, you had a good time today. Could you at least give me a chance.” 

Aradia was in the exact position she had hoped to avoid. She remained silent for the moment. 

“I have another magic show comin’ up, you could go watch and then we could go out for lunch.” 

“Your magic shows do nothing but irritate me and I think you know that” 

“C’mon, you weren’t even a little mystified?” 

“Yeah, I guess so. But mostly bothered.” 

“What if I told you how it worked?” 

“How what worked?” 

“The tricks. Go on a date with me and I’ll tell you how a trick works.” 

Aradia bit down on her lip to keep herself from smiling. Bribery. Eridan was trying to bribe her to go on a date with him. Well, there was nothing she would lose from one date. 

“Alright. But no more magic shows. Not for a first date anyway.” 

Eridan smiled at her, looking slightly surprised, but mostly happy and relieved. “Great.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FINALLY, amiright? (Come on Aradia making the poor guy resort to bribery, you totally would have said yes anyway, right?)


	14. A Friend to Rely On and Some Mild Worries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A super short chapter about Kanaya helping Aradia before her date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It has been about 8 months. I'm sorry. This is practically inexcusable and I'm very sorry. I'm hoping to actually get back to this and update it semiregularly. However I feel the need to refresh my knowledge on everything from the characters and their peculiarities because as of late I havent been so actively engaged in the occurrences of our beloved webcomic. I think i'm just going to try and reread the entire thing, but I am so awful at sticking to things (can you tell?) Anyway i'm sorry this is so late and so short but hey, it's something, and ssomething so slight is perfect to ease myself back into it.

By the time the day of their date rolled around, Aradia was already regretting saying yes. Eridan had decided that since she didn’t want to go to his magic show, they would just go out for dinner. Of course that meant Eridan was choosing the place, which led to Aradia not having anything fancy enough. Once again, Aradia was dependant on the one person she’d rather not have control her wardrobe: Kanaya. 

Kanaya showed up at Aradia’s apartment no less than 3 hours before the date. This time, there seemed to be no options for Aradia. Kanaya only carried one garment bag and a makeup kit. Kanaya firmly told Aradia exactly what to do, “Go take a shower. Take care to shave your legs and underarms.” 

“You brought something sleeveless?” 

“You did tell me I was in charge on this one.” 

“I just said I needed some help!” 

“And what better help can I give than telling you exactly what to do, and doing the rest for you?” 

“Kanaya!” 

“Shower.” 

Aradia pouted but went to take a shower nonetheless. Despite her resistance she did what Kanaya asked and returned soft and smooth half an hour later. Kanaya had set up station on her desk and there was a number of various types of makeup. Aradia shuddered. These next hours were sure to be utterly taxing for her. 

“We’ll put the dress on you first. I’d recommend moisturizing before it, though.” 

Aradia sighed and rubbed a flowery scented lotion Kanaya had brought onto her arms and legs. Kanaya walked over and unzipped the garment bag. Aradia turned to look and saw mostly black and green. And a concerning amount of sparkle. Kanaya helped Aradia into the dress. It was one of those stupid high-low dresses. The skirt portion of it was black and very lightweight. It was multilayered and almost reminded Aradia of a bird’s tail feathers. The top portion was tight and was an odd swirling pattern of jade green and black. The entire bodice was covered in dark green and black sequins that reflected the light of her bathroom nicely. Aradia walked back into the bedroom and almost laughed at the way the dress felt. She literally felt like a bird with the tail trailing behind her. She paced the length of her apartment a couple of times and laughed softly. The dress was fun to walk in, even if it did cause her to show a little more cleavage than she’d prefer. 

“Now. We need to get your makeup done.” 

“Fine.” Aradia sighed. 

“We have the best lighting in your bathroom, however I have already taken care to set up at your desk, so we will have to make due over there.” 

“Okay. It works for me, if we really _have_ to put on makeup.” Aradia added the tag hopefully. 

“You don’t have to do anything, but as you agreed to go on this date with him, and he’s chosen a nicer restaurant, it would make the most sense to have your face as done up as you are in this dress. Unless you’d like to call him and cancel now?” 

“No… It’s not that. It’s just… you know dressing up and acting the part isn’t exactly my thing.” 

Kanaya smiled at her, “You’ll be fine. And if you do something silly then i’m sure he’ll forgive you. Now, to the restroom we go.” In the bathroom, Aradia sat on a chair in front of the mirror and Kanaya started brushing on a powdered foundation. 

“But why are we even going out in the first place? I’m nothing like him!” 

“Haven’t you ever heard the phrase ‘opposites attract’? Not to mention some may find your awful blog and bizarre sense of humor endearing.” 

“Hey!” Aradia looked at her with a false look of offense. 

“That was your word, not mine. And sit still.” “But I meant it ironically.” 

“Aradia, I’ve seen your blog all of two times, both of which were you showing me something you thought I’d enjoy.” Kanaya resumed applying makeup, this time a light blush. 

“Oh yeah. I started a tag for you.” 

“What is the tag?” 

Aradia laughed, “It’s _‘fashion friend’_.” 

Kanaya smiled at her in the mirror, “I guess it could have been worse.” 

“Most of the things I tag are either about fashion; making clothes and general seamstressery; or flowers, because I know you love them.” 

“Maybe I should go through this tag, if you think the posts would strike my interest.” 

“That is why I tagged them.” 

“Here, now close your eyes for a minute.” 

Aradia cooperated and tried not to twitch as she felt Kanaya drag the cold liquid eyeliner brush over the edge of her eyelid. Aradia clenched and unclenched her hand as a distraction to the feeling of the brush gliding over her eye, tracing what was sure to be a sharp line. Sooner than later Kanaya moved on the the second eye and mirrored (or at least Aradia assumed she mirrored) the first eye. When she was satisfied with her handiwork she spoke, “Give it another minute or so to thoroughly dry.” 

Aradia hummed as a response. When she felt like she had waited long enough she blinked open her eyes and then tilted her head to best see what Kanaya had done. 

“I hate you and your ability to conjure perfectly flawless wings in less than 5 minutes.” 

“No you don’t.” 

“No I don't,” Aradia agreed, looking at the smooth black lines. 

“Now, a little eyeshadow,” She set to work, “I’m giving you a softer sort of look; nothing too bold because this is guaranteed to be a classy place. The dress is flashy enough to draw just enough attention in a place like that anyway..” 

“Why would you chose something if it was borderline too much?” 

“You look simply ravishing in it.” 

Aradia bit back a smile, “Thank you.” 

“You’re quite welcome.” 

After that, Kanaya worked in silence, which may have been in part due to the fact that she was doing Aradia’s lipstick. She then set to doing her hair, letting it fall in its natural curls, but pulling the front pieces of hair back with a pair of bejeweled bobby pins. Aradia tried to object because she normally had her hair as a backup to hide behind if something went wrong. Kanaya dismissed her concerns by telling her that she already knew, and that is why she’d done it. Even if Kanaya wasn’t saying it outright, it was clear she wanted Aradia and Eridan to get along. This was even more apparent as she considered how Kanaya had given Aradia’s phone number and address to him. So even though he’d forgotten her, or claimed to have forgotten her at the magic show, Kanaya and Eridan were friends of some sort. Actually, considering magic tricks were only that: tricks, Kanaya had to be in on it! 

“Kanaya!” 

“What is is?” She looked confused at Aradia’s outburst. 

“You know how Eridan’s magic tricks work, don’t you.” 

Kanaya’s face took on a too calm expression, “Of course not.” 

She definitely knew, Aradia thought. But with someone as loyal as Kanaya, it would be pointless to try and get it out of her. Aradia guessed she’d just have to go through with this whole date thing to find out. 

“If you say so, Kanaya.” 

“If I would have said yes and then told you how every one of his tricks work, would you have called him to cancel?” Kanaya asked with one eyebrow raised. 

“Actually,” Aradia paused, “No. I wouldn’t have.” Aradia was slightly surprised to realise that this was true, and that as much as she was complaining, she wasn’t entirely opposed to the date itself. Kanaya smiled at her answer. 

“Good. I really think tonight will go well. He should be on his best behavior, and I do mean best. And now, since I seemed to have underestimated either the time this would take or the trouble you would cause in the process of getting ready, we have some extra time. How about you show me that ‘fashion friend’ tag before he gets here.” 

“Okay,” Aradia smiled, tonight should go well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you and sorry.

**Author's Note:**

> Nag me to update at aprilletherainbowcat.tumblr.com ((shooosh you i made that up like last year and i dont feel like changing it))


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